SHORT  HISTORY 


OF  THE 


CHURCH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

A.D.  1492-1890 


JOHN  F.  HUKST,  D.D. 

AUTHOR    OF   "SHORT   HISTORY   OF   THE    EARLY    CHURCH" 

"  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  THE  MODERN  CHURCH  IN  EUROPE  " 

"  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  THE  REFORMATION  "  ETC. 


NEW  YORK 
CHAUTAUQUA    PRESS 

C.  L.  S.  C.  DEPARTMENT 

150  FIFTH  AVKNUE 

1890 


The  required  looks  of  the  C.  L.  S.  C.  are  recommended  by  a  Council 
of  six.  It  must,  however,  be  understood  that  recommendation  does  not 
involve  an  approval  by  the  Council,  or  by  any  member  of  it,  of  every 
principle  or  doctrine  contained  in  the  book  recommended. 


Copyright,  1890,  by  HARPER  &  BROTHERS. 

All  right*  rttened. 


CONTENTS. 


PART  I.— THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD. 

OHAPTKIl  PAOB 

I.  THE  NEW  CHRISTENDOM 1 

II.  THE  SPANISH  COLONIZATION 4 

III.  THE  FRENCH  COLONIZATION 8 

IV.  THE   ENGLISH   COLONIZATION  :    VIRGINIA   AND 

MASSACHUSETTS 12 

V.  MARYLAND,   PENNSYLVANIA,  AND    OTHER   ENG- 
LISH COLONIES 17 

VI.  CONTINENTAL  COLONIES  :   DUTCH,  SWEDES,   HU- 
GUENOTS, AND  OTHER  PROTESTANTS  ....  21 

VII.  THE  PROVIDENTIAL  PLANTING 25 

VIII.  POLITICAL  FRAMEWORK  OF  THE  COLONIES.     .  28 

IX.  CHURCH  GOVERNMENT  IN  THE  COLONIES    ...  81 

X.  EDUCATION 35 

XI.  INTOLERANCE  IN  THE  COLONIES 40 

XII.  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF  THE  COLONIES 46 

XIII.  COLONIAL  WORSHIP  AND  USAGES 49 

XIV.  MISSIONS  TO  THE  INDIANS 52 

XV.  THEOLOGICAL  MOVEMENTS ,57 


1711842 


CONTENTS. 


PART  II.— THE  NATIONAL   PERIOD. 

CHAPTER  1'AGE 

I.  THE    CHURCH   AT   THE    FOUNDING    OF   THE   RE- 
PUBLIC     63 

II.  THE  SEPARATION  OF  CHURCH  AND  STATE  ...    65 

III.  THE    REVIVAL    AT    THE    BEGINNING    OF    THE 

CENTURY 67 

IV.  EXPANSION  IN  THE  SOUTH  AND  WEST.     .     .     .,    .     69 
V.  THE  LARGE  AND  EARLIER  DENOMINATIONS    .    .    72 

VI.  THE  SMALLER  EVANGELICAL  BODIES  .....  78 

VII.  THE  QUAKERS .    .  81 

VIII.  THE  ROMAN  CATHOLIC  CHURCH 82 

IX.  THE  UNITARIAN  CHURCH 85 

X.  THE  TRANSCENDENTALISTS 87 

XI.  UNIVERSALISTS  AND  OTHER  SMALLER  BODIES.     .  89 

XII.  THE  MORMON  ABOMINATION 92 

XIII.  THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  REFORM  ...."....  95 

XIV.  THE  TEMPERANCE  REFORM 99 

XV.  PHILANTHROPY  AND  CHRISTIAN  UNION    .     .    .    .103 

XVI.  MISSIONS 107 

XVII.  CHRISTIAN  LITERATURE Ill 

XVIII.  THE  SUNDAY-SCHOOL 117 

XIX.  THE  AMERICAN  PULPIT 120 

XX.  THEOLOGY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  CHURCH   ....  123 

INDEX  .  .  127 


SHORT  HISTORY 

OF   THE 

CHURCH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


i. 

Colonial 

1492-17'83. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE   NEW    CHRISTENDOM. 

1.  Europe  in  the  Sixteenth  Century  was  in  convulsion. 
The  Reformation  had  already  stirred  England  to  its 
centre  by  the  fearless  labors  of  Wyclif,  while  Huss  of 
Bohemia  had  uttered  a  cry  of  warning  which  was  heard 
throughout  the  Continent  and  awakened  fear  in  Rome. 
These  reformatory  movements  reacted  on  the  political 
life  of  all  the  central  nations.  Not  a  throne  was  safe 
where  the  new  religious  revolt  was  in  full  force.  The 
entire  sixteenth  century  was  a  period  of  universal  dis- 
turbance. The  progress  of  reform  provoked  violent 
hostility,  and  every  land  was  divided  into  factions. 
There  were  three  general  grades  of  sentiment.  One 
class,  receiving  its  inspiration  from  Rome,  wished  to 
continue  the  old  order,  with  the  Pope  as  practical 
sovereign.  Another  class,  craving  liberty  and  an  ac- 
1 


2  THE    CHURCH    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

commodation  to  the  new  order,  was  willing  to  break 
loose  from  the  Roman  see,  but  desired  to  retain  many 
of  the  Romish  usages.  The  third  class  saw  nothing 
but  antichrist  in  Rome,  and  found  hope  only  in  casting 
off  every  reminder  of  papal  doctrine  and  custom. 

2.  The  Transferal  of  European  Conflicts  to  America  was 
the  new  order.     Whenever  a  colony  came  to  America, 
it  no  sooner  settled  in  its  new  habitat  than  it  revived, 
under  broader  conditions,  the  struggle  in  Avhich  it  had 
been  engaged  in  Europe.     The  cavalier  of  the  Virginia 
Colony  surrendered  none  of  his  old  attachment  to  the 
Church  of  England.     The  Plymouth  Pilgrim  was  even 
more  intense  in  his  revolt  against  both  Romanism  and 
Protestant  Episcopacy  than  he  had  been  when  he  was 
a  Brownist  at  Scrooby,  a  parishioner  of  Robinson  in 
Leyden,  or  a  Pilgrim  on  the  Mayflower.     In  the  new 
world  were  fought  out,  in  smaller  numbers,  and  by  con- 
testants more  dispersed,  the  issues  which  had  driven 
the  colonists  to  the  Western  wilds. 

3.  The  Religious  Motive  was  supreme  in  the  mind  of 
all  the  best  colonists.     To  enjoy  the  free  exercise  of 
conscience  was  the  Pilgrim's  one  passion,  whose  bright 
flame  no  distance  from  native  land,  nor  stormy  seas,  nor 
rigor  of  climate,  nor  danger  of  death  by  savage  hands 
could  quench.     Our  first  settlers  came  as  Christians, 
lived  as  Christians,  and  planted  the  religious  principle 
as   the   richest   inheritance  for  their  posterity.     The 
Pilgrims,  before  leaving  England,  had  no  thought  of 
separating  from  the  Established   Church,  but  longed 
for  reformation  within  it ;  and  they  resolved  on  the 
expedient  of  emigration  only  when  James  I.  deceived 
them,  and  said  :  "  I  will  make  them  conform  or  harry 
them  out  of  the  land."     "The  charter  of  the  first  col- 
ony," says  Baird,  "  that  of  Virginia,  provided  that  the 


THE   NEW   CHRISTENDOM.  3 

whole  settlement  should  have  a  Christian  character,  and 
enjoined  the  worship  of  the  Church  of  England,  re- 
quiring every  male  colonist  of  sixteen  and  upward 
to  pay  ten  pounds  of  tobacco  and  one  bushel  of  corn 
for  the  support  of  the  Church.  When  the  Puritans 
gained  ascendency  in  England,  under  the  Protectorate 
of  Cromwell,  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas  became  the 
refuge  for  the  Cavalier  and  the  Churchman,  as  after- 
wards of  the  Huguenot  and  the  German  Protestant. 
Georgia  was  colonized  expressly  as  an  asylum  for  im- 
prisoned and  persecuted  Bohemians  and  the  inhabitants 
of  the  Italian  valleys,  and  the  Colony  of  Gnstavus 
Adolpluis  was  to  be  a  blessing  to  the  whole  Protestant 
world  by  offering  a  shelter  to  all  who  stood  in  need  of 
one." 


CHAPTER   II. 

THE    SPANISH    COLONIZATION. 

1.  The  Earliest  on  the  New  American  field  were  the 
Spanish  discoverers  and  conquerors.    When  Columbus 
discovered  the  little  West  India  island  of  San  Salvador, 
and  raised  upon  the  shore  the  cross,  he  dedicated  it  and 
the  lands  beyond  to  his  sovereigns,  Ferdinand  and  Isa- 
bella.  The  "  Gloria  in  Excelsis  "  was  sung  by  the  discov- 
erer and  his  weary  crew  with  as  much  fervor  as  it  had 
ever  been  chanted  in  the  cathedrals  of  Spain.    The  faith 
was  the  Roman  Catholic.     On  his  second  voyage,  in 
1494,  Columbus  took  with  him  a  vicar  apostolic  and 
twelve  priests,  and  on  the  island  of  Hayti  erected  the 
first  chapel  in  the  Western  World.    The  success  of  Co- 
lumbus in  discovering  a  new  world  in  the  west  awak- 
ened a  wild  enthusiasm  throughout  Europe.     Visions 
of  gold  inflamed  the  minds  alike  of  rulers,  knights,  and 
adventurers.     To  discover  and  gather  treasures,  and 
organize   vast   missionary   undertakings,  became    the 
mania  of  the  times.    No  European  country  which  pos- 
sessed a  strip  of  seaboard  escaped  the  delirium.     To 
send  out  a  vessel  or  a  fleet  to  the  new  world  was  the 
fashion  of  the  palace  and  the  capitalist. 

2.  Mexico  was  the  first  broad  field  of  conquest  by 
the  Spaniards.     Cortes  led  the  expedition,  and  in  1520 
landed  at  a  point  which  still  bears  the  name  of  Vera 
Cruz  (the  True  Cross).     He  conciliated  a  tribe  which 
was  in  rebellion  against  the  Aztec  king  Montezuma, 


THE  SPANISH  COLONIZATION.  5 

and  succeeded  in  dethroning  the  king,  and  bringing 
the  country  into  subjection  to  Spain.  The  colonists, 
who  arrived  in  quick  succession,  had  among  their  mem- 
bers earnest  priests,  to  whom  it  was  a  passion  to  carry 
the  cross  into  the  interior,  and  to  convert,  by  any 
means,  the  aborigines  to  the  Gospel  of  Christ.  From 
the  capital,  Mexico,  missionaries  representing  the  prin- 
cipal Roman  orders  penetrated  all  parts  of  the  new 
province,  reached  the  shores  of  the  Pacific,  and  formed 
a  line  of  missions  up  the  Pacific  nearly  to  the  present 
state  of  Washington. 

3.  Other  fields,  more  or  less  dependent  on  Mexico, 
were  rapidly  added  to  the  Spanish  domain  in  America. 
In  1542  Coronado  led  an  expedition  northward  into 
the  New  Mexico  and  Arizona  of  our  day,  and  the  mis- 
sion of  the  priest  continued  after  that  of  the  military 
adventurer  was  ended.     The  traces  of  this  expedition 
are  still  to  be  seen  in  the  old  churches  of  Santa  Fe 
and  Tucson,  and  in  the  Roman  Catholic  faith  of  the 
mixed  Indian  and  Spanish  population.     The  conquest 
of  Florida  was  begun  by  Pamphilo  de  Narvaez  in  1526, 
and  completed  about  1601.     A  Huguenot  colony  was 
established  there,  but  the  Spaniards  would  not  allow 
it  to  live.     They  murdered  the  Huguenots,  and  estab- 
lished their  own  missions  on  the  spot.     Texas  was  or- 
ganized into  a  mission  by  Father  de  Olmos  in  1546. 
De  Soto  explored  the  Mississippi  Valley.    Vasco  Nunez 
de  Balboa  and  Alonzo  de  Ojedu  explored  the  Isthmus 
of  Darien,  and  added  the  contiguous  regions  to  the 
same  broadening  domain   of   Spain   and  the  Roman 
communion. 

4.  The  Evils  of  Spanish  Colonization  were  manifested 
in  each  of  these  sections.     The  conqueror  was  devoted 
to  the  Church,  and  missionaries  became  willing  tools 


6  THE    CHURCH    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

to  compel  obedience  to  the  new  Spanish  authority. 
Wherever  the  natives  refused  allegiance  to  the  relig- 
ion of  the  conquerors,  they  were  persecuted  and  even 
put  to  death.  Las  Casas,  the  one  humane  servant  of 
his  Church,  reports  that  in  Yucatan  alone  five  millions 
of  Mexican  aborigines  were  slaughtered.  The  curse 
of  Spanish  cruelty  in  Mexico  has  never  been  counter- 
balanced by  beneficence  in  other  departments.  The 
Aztec  and  other  native  races  have  always  cherished  a 
violent  hostility  to  the  very  name  of  the  Spaniard.  As 
if  a  divine  Nemesis  had  watched  over  those  suffering 
people  for  three  centuries,  the  freedom  from  Spanish 
rule  and  the  birth  of  the  Mexican  Republic  have  been 
brought  about  by  descendants  of  the  natives  whom  the 
Spaniards  persecuted.  Juarez,  the  Washington  of  Mex- 
ico, was  an  Indian,  and  the  first  president,  Diaz,  is  in 
part  Indian,  while  Altamirano  and  other  leading  liter- 
ary characters  are  of  unmixed  Indian  blood. 

5.  All  the  Spanish  Colonies  in  North  America  shared 
with  Mexico  the  same  narrow  spirit.     The  Spaniard 
was  in  the  New  World  to  get  what  he  could ;  to  en- 
force his  faith  ;  to  carry  back  gold  to  enrich  the  coffers 
of  Spain  and  the  Pope ;  to  add  to  his  own  dignity  by 
grinding  down  the  conquered  races.     Florida,  the  Mis- 
sissippi Valley,  the  Pacific  Coast,  the  West  India  Islands, 
and  Central  America  became  a  vast  feudatory  territo- 
ry, whose  treasures  were  used  for  filling  foreign  coffers, 
and  whose  people  were  regarded  as  little  better  than 
slaves. 

6.  Scanty  Education  was  imparted  to  these  millions 
newly  added  to  the  Roman  faith.     Some  of  the  priests 
translated  devotional  and  doctrinal  treatises  into  the 
native  tongues,  in  order  the  better  to  reach  the  people. 
The  printing-press  was  early  erected  in  both  Mexico 


THE    SPANISH    COLONIZATION.  7 

and  Vera  Cruz,  but  only  as  an  instrument  of  ecclesias- 
tical authority.  Molina  published  in  Mexico  an  Aztec 
and  Spanish  Dictionary  in  1545 — the  first  important 
philological  work  printed  in  America.  Small  works 
by  Zumaraga  were  also  published  in  the  Aztec  tongue 
in  the  city  of  Mexico.  Many  devotional  works  in  the 
Spanish  language  were  printed  in  Spain  and  Flanders, 
and  introduced  into  Mexico  for  the  better  holding  of 
the  increasing  Spanish  population  in  willing  subjection 
to  the  Roman  Catholic  Church. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE    FKENCH    COLONIZATION. 

1.  Prance  Looking  Westward. — Very  soon  after  the 
discovery  of  America  the  French  mariners  caught  from 
Spain  and  Portugal  the  spirit  of  discovery,  and  went 
westward  in  search  of  new  lands,  to  add  them  to  the 
dominion  of  France.     They  explored  the  regions  of 
the  present  dominion  of  Canada,  which  became  known 
on  the  map  of  the  world  as  New  France.    They  thread- 
ed the  Mississippi,  and  planted  colonies  at  favorable 
points.     They  formed  friendly  relations  with  the  In- 
dian tribes,  and  built  up  a  powerful  system  of  colonies, 
half  religious  and  half  political,  which  grew  in  strength 
as  time  advanced.    This  wTas  the  French  Roman  Cath- 
olic current  to  America,  which,  later,  threatened  to  ex- 
tinguish the  Anglo-Saxon  domination. 

2.  The  French  Navigators  who  came  to  the  Western 
World  were  prompted  by  the  spirit  of  discovery,  finan- 
cial gain,  and  temporal  dominion.    They  were  not  will- 
ing that  the  Spanish,  Portuguese,  and  English  should 
monopolize  either  the  glory  or  the  advantage  of  dis- 
coveries and  colonization  on  the  continent.    Verrezano 
led  an  expedition  in  1524  to  North  Carolina,  and  went 
northward  as  far  as  Newfoundland.     Cartier  continued 
where  Verrezano  left  off,  explored  the  Gulf  of  St.  Law- 
rence, ascended  the  river  as  far  as  where  Montreal  now 
stands,  and  penetrated   the   great   wilds   of   Canada. 
Champlain  made  still  further  explorations.     He  found- 


THE    FRENCH    COLONIZATION.  9 

cd  Quebec,  and,  in  1608,  made  it  the  centre  of  his 
authority  in  New  France.  He  entered  into  friendly 
relations  with  the  great  Indian  tribes.  Under  him  the 
authority  of  France  was  established,  and  a  new  and  vast 
territory  was  added  to  the  domains  of  the  French  king. 

3.  The  French  along  the  Great  Lakes. — The  French 
had  only  to  continue  their  exploration  westward.     No 
European   colony  stood  in  their  way.     Their  Jesuit 
missionaries,  who  accompanied  every  exploring  expe- 
dition, organized  missions,  taught  the  elements  of  their 
doctrines  to  the  new  Indian  members,  and  counted  no 
sacrifice  too  dear  to  convert  the  savages  to  Christian- 
ity.    Montreal  was  founded,  and  became  the  seat  of  a 
strong  Jesuit  missionary  force.     Detroit  was  added  to 
the  map  of  the  Jesuit  world.    The  Huron  tribes,  whose 
northern  territory  skirted  the  frozen  zone,  became  a 
special  object  of  Jesuit  zeal.     So  intense  was  this  new 
enthusiasm  that  the  northern  regions  of  the  present 
states  of  Maine  and  New  York  became  a  mission  field. 
Here  labored  Fathers  Druellettes  and  Jogues,  who  ex- 
hibited all  the  energy  of  Xavier  in  braving  dangers 
from  savages  and  the  elements.     On  both  sides  of  the 
St.  Lawrence,  and  striking  far  into  the  interior,  and 
going  ever  westward,  the  chain  of  missions  extended 
along  the  shores  of  Lake  Michigan,  and  to  the  far-off 
region  of  Lake  Superior.     Rome  and  France  divided 
the  glory.     Realistic  accounts  were  sent  back  to  Eu- 
rope, and  an  intense  sympathy  was  aroused,  in  palace 
and  hut,  in  behalf  of  the  evangelization  of  tribes  whose 
existence  the  Jesuit  missionaries  were  the  first  to  make 
known  to  the  European  world. 

4.  The  Mississippi  Valley  was  explored  by  the  French, 
and  wherever  the  explorers  went  the  Jesuit  fathers  es- 
tablished  missions.     Joliet,  the   layman,  and   Father 


10  THE    CHUKCH    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

Marquette,  the  Jesuit  priest,  continued  westward  until 
they  struck  the  headwaters  of  the  Mississippi,  and  de- 
scended it  as  far  as  the  mouth  of  the  Arkansas,  when 
they  returned  to  Canada.  La  Salle,  more  bold,  de- 
scended the  river  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  proclaimed 
the  valley  of  the  Mississippi  a  possession  of  his  king, 
Louis  XIV.  of  France.  Iberville  sailed  from  France 
in  1698  with  an  expedition,  and  later,  in  1700,  estab- 
lished a  French  colony  near  the  mouth  of  the  Missis- 
sippi. In  the  path  of  these  explorations  missions  were 
established  at  every  convenient  point.  Indians  were 
gathered  into  the  Roman  fold  along  the  great  river 
and  its  tributaries.  A  chain  of  missions  extended 
from  the  gulf  directly  northward  into  the  interior  of 
Canada,  and  thence  eastward  as  far  as  the  Gulf  of  St. 
Lawrence  and  the  Atlantic  Ocean. 

5.  The  Outcome  of  the  great  French  colonial  system, 
in  its  early  period,  promised  largely.  The  leading 
Jesuit  fathers  were  heroes  in  endurance  and  daring. 
In  the  annals  of  the  Christian  Church  their  self-sacri- 
fice is  not  surpassed.  The  accounts  which  they  sent 
back  to  France  concerning  their  work,  and  which  pass 
by  the  name  of  the  "  Jesuit  Relations,"  are  among  the 
rarest  and  most  brilliant  narratives  of  missionary  op- 
erations produced  by  the  modern  Church.  As  time 
advanced,  the  Jesuit  character  passed  largely-from  the 
spiritual  guide  into  the  political  agent.  No  European  in 
America  has  ever  possessed  the  confidence  of  the  Indian 
as  did  the  French  Jesuit.  While  the  first  lesson  which 
the  western  and  the  northern  Indian  was  taught  was 

O 

loyalty  to  Christ,  in  the  same  breath  was  taught  loy- 
alty to  the  king  of  France.  In  time  the  second  loy- 
alty was  the  stronger  lesson.  The  Indian  was  urged 
to  hate  the  English.  The  Englishman  was  loathed  as 


THE    FRENCH    COLONIZATION.  11 

the  Protestant,  and  therefore  the  enemy.  The  colonial 
missions  along  the  Mississippi  now  grew  in  commercial 
importance.  The  chain  along  the  Lakes,  extending  from 
the  northwestern  limit  of  Lake  Superior  to  the  Atlan- 
tic Ocean,  was  far  behind  the  English  advance  in  New 
England,  the  middle,  and  the  southern  colonies.  There 
was  religious  stagnation  and  political  retrogression. 

6.  English  and  French  Colonists  in  Canada  had  now 
developed  so  far,  and  had  come  into  such  frequent 
collision,  that  a  final  solution  was  soon  to  be  reached. 
The  struggle  between  the  English  on  the  one  side  and 
the  French  and  Indians  on  the  other,  at  Fort  Duquesne, 
the  present  Pittsburgh,  in  1754,  resulted  in  the  defeat 
of  the  English  under  Braddock.  This  gave  the  whole 
west  into  the  hands  of  the  French.  But  the  English 
were  not  ready  to  surrender  the  contest.  The  war 
was  carried  into  Canada  and  along  the  southern  side 
of  the  St.  Lawrence.  Monckton  subdued  the  French  in 
Nova  Scotia  in  1755.  Fort  Duquesne,  Frontenac,  and 
Louisbourg  fell  into  English  hands  in  1758.  Niagara, 
Crown  Point,  and  Ticonderoga  were  now  also  wrested 
from  the  French.  The  final  struggle  was  for  Quebec. 
Here  the  English  also  Avon.  Wolfe  received  a  fatal 
wound,  but  when  told  "  They  run  !"  he  had  strength 
to  ask,  "  Who  run  ?"  The  answer  was,  "The  French." 
He  answered,  "  I  thank  God  ;  I  die  happy." 

This  was  the  end  of  French  dominion  in  Canada.  All 
the  vast  dreams  of  a  New  France  in  the  Western  World 
were  now  over.  The  treaty  which  followed  the  fall  of 
Quebec  gave  all  the  territory  east  of  the  Mississippi 
to  England.  This  conquest  of  Canada  by  the  English 
was  second  only  to  the  Revolutionary  War  in  its  effects 
on  Protestantism  in  America.  Without  it,  the  success 
of  the  Revolution  would  hardly  have  been  possible. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE     ENGLISH     COLONIZATION  :     VIRGINIA     AND     MASSA- 
CHUSETTS. 

1.  The  First  English  Discoveries. — England  was  pro- 
foundly impressed  by  the  Spanish  discoveries  in  Amer- 
ica. Her  rulers  and  her  sailors  were  alike  anxious, 
from  different  motives,  to  gather  into  the  British  do- 
main whatever  treasures  and  territory  the  New  World 
might  give  them.  It  was  a  European  race  for  gold, 
for  furs,  for  land.  So  far,  Spain  had  the  advantage. 
But  the  Anglo-Saxon,  in  all  modern  history,  has  been 
the  king  of  circumstance.  Four  years  after  Columbus 
knelt  on  the  shore  of  the  little  island  of  San  Salvador, 
and  raised  the  cross,  John  Cabot  sailed  from  Eng- 
land westward  to  reach  China.  Henry  VII.  gave  him 
authority  to  discover  unknown  lands,  and  incorporate 
them  with  the  British  Isles.  While  he  sailed  for  Chi- 
na, he  touched  the  bleak  shore  of  Labrador.  On  a  sec- 
ond voyage  he  discovered  Newfoundland  and  the  New 
England  coast,  and  skirted  the  Atlantic  coast  down  to 
Florida.  Other  English  discoverers  followed  in  his 
bold  ocean  pathway — Martin  Frobisher,  Sir  Humphrey 
Gilbert,  Captain  John  Smith,  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  and 
Gorges.  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert  was  lost  at  sea,  and 
shortly  before  his  death  he  was  heard  to  say,  "  We  are 
as  near  heaven  by  sea  as  by  land."  Wherever  these 
discoverers  went  they  laid  claim  to  the  land  in  the  name 
of  the  British  crown.  It  was  little  concern  whether 


TI1E    ENGLISH    COLONIZATION.  13 

Spain  or  France  had  already  claimed  it.     The  future 
would  decide  which  was  the  abler  to  hold  and  colonize. 

2.  The  James  River  Colony. — The  first  stage  in  devel- 
opment was  to  colonize.     The  James  River  Colony  was 
the  first  attempt  at  permanent  occupation.     This  col- 
ony consisted  of  English  cavaliers,  devoted  adherents 
of  the  Established  Church.     The  colonists  arrived  in 
Virginia,  and  settled  on  the  bank  of  James  River,  in 
1603.     The  easy-going,  gentlemanly  element  predom- 
inated.    Of  the  one  hundred  and  five  colonists,  only 
twelve  were  tillers  of  the  soil.     The  leader  was  John 
Smith.     The  Church  of  England  was  established  as 
the   ecclesiastical  body.      It   was  required  that  each 
male  over  sixteen  years  of  age  should  pay  annually  ten 
pounds  of  tobacco  and  one  bushel  of  corn  for  the  sup- 
port of  the  clergy.     Very  soon  there  arose  trouble  in 
the  little  body.     John  Smith  had  his  enemies,  and  they 
were  not  slow  to  express  their  hostility.     One  of  the 
members  of  this  colony  was  Sandys,  who  wrote  the 
first  English  work  ever  written  in  the  Western  Hemi- 
sphere— a  "  Translation  of  Ovid's  Metamorphoses."   By 
trouble  with  the  Indians,  by  depletion  through  disease, 
and  from  other  causes,  the  colonists  were  reduced  to 
great  need,  and  but  for  a  timely  reinforcement  would 
probably  have  become  extinct.     The  first  stage  of  diffi- 
culty having  passed,  the  pei'iod  of  earnest  practical 
work  began.     John  Smith   wrote  back  to  England  a 
letter  disabusing  the  public  mind  of  its  dream  of  gold 
from  Virginia  by  saying,  "  Nothing  is  to  be  expected 
thence  but  by  labor."     Corn  was  planted,  houses  were 
built,  tobacco-fields  were  cultivated,  and  in  fifteen  years 
the  number  of  colonists,  increased  by  later  energetic 
arrivals,  numbered  five  thousand  people. 

3.  The  Plymouth  Colony  arrived  in  1620,  at  Cape  Cod. 


14  THE    CHURCH    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

These  men  were  the  boldest,  most  original,  and  most 
devout  of  all  the  organized  colonies  which  landed  on 
the  American  shore.  The  Pilgrims  were  revolution- 
ists in  the  highest  moral  sense.  The  little  company  of 
Brownists,  who  were  Separatists  from  the  Established 
Church,  sailed  from  Scrooby,  in  Lincolnshire,  England, 
for  Holland,  intending  to  make  that  country  their  per- 
manent abode.  They  remained  in  Amsterdam  one  year, 
then  went  to  Leyden,  and  lived  twelve  years,  where 
they  had  a  church  of  three  hundred  communicants,  and 
finally  determined  to  try  their  fortunes  in  the  New 
'World  ;  or,  as  Canning  has  said,  "  They  turned  to  the 
New  World  to  redress  the  balance  of  the  Old."  Two 
of  their  number — Robert  Cushman  and  John  Carver — 
were  sent  to  England  to  secure  a  patent  to  unite  with 
the  Virginia  Colony.  A  patent  seems  to  have  been 
received,  but  it  did  them  no  good.  The  Pilgrims  left 
Leyden  for  England,  and  set  sail  from  Plymouth  in 
the  Mayflower  and  the  Speedwell.  The  latter  vessel 
proved  unseaworthy,  and  returned.  The  Mayflower 
crossed  the  ocean,  and  on  November  9, 1620,  she  dropped 
anchor  at  Cape  Cod.  John  Robinson  had  been  the  pas- 
tor in  Leyden.  He  remained  in  Europe,  but  comfort- 
ed his  flock  by  sympathetic  administration  until  they 
sailed  and  by  pastoral  letters  after  their  departure. 
The  Plymouth  colonists  suffered  from  disease,  the  in- 
roads of  the  Indians,  and  the  scarcity  of  food.  They 
"  knew  not  at  night  where  to  have  a  bit  in  the  morn- 
ing." Eight  months  after  their  arrival  they  removed 
permanently  from  Cape  Cod,  and  settled  on  the  west- 
ern side  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  where  they  built  a  town, 
and  called  it  Plymouth,  after  the  last  place  which  they 
had  left  in  England. 
4.  The  Colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay  was  secured  by 


THE    ENGLISH    COLONIZATION.  15 

English  Puritans  in  1629.  Probably  Charles  I.  would 
never  have  granted  this  Puritan  request  but  for  its  char- 
acter—  permission  to  leave  his  realm.  Then,  too,  he 
may  have  been  influenced  by  the  fact  that  James  I.,  in 
November,  1G20,  had  granted  a  charter  to  forty  per- 
sons for  a  belt  of  territory  between  the  fortieth  and 
forty-eighth  degrees  of  north  latitude,  extending  from 
the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific.  This  charter  had  been 
dissolved,  and  the  new  charter  for  Massachusetts  Bay 
might  safely  take  its  place.  Winthrop,  with  a  com- 
pany of  eight  hundred  men,  was  the  Massachusetts  lead- 
er. He  said,  "I  shall  call  that  my  country  where  I  may 
most  glorify  God  and  enjoy  the  presence  of  my  dearest 
friends."  The  Massachusetts  men  consisted  of  the  mid- 
dle class  of  English  Puritans.  Some  were  lawyers  and 
members  of  other  learned  professions.  Others  were 
good  farmers,  men  of  large  landed  estates,  Oxford  schol- 
ars, and  divines.  Among  the  clergy  were  such  intel- 
lectual giants  as  Cotton,  Hooker,  and  Roger  Williams. 
5.  Rapid  Increase. — A  body  of  two  hundred  colonists 
was  already  established  at  Salem.  Winthrop's  men 
united  with  them.  Some  seven  hundred  more  colo- 
nists followed  in  the  wake  of  Winthrop's  ships.  There 
was  no  hope  whatever  for  any  favor  in  England.  The 
whole  trend  of  royal  authority  was  against  the  Puri- 
tans. Archbishop  Laud  was  persecuting  all  non-con- 
formists, without  even  the  pretence  of  mercy.  The 
Puritans  looked  to  America  as  probably  their  only  safe 
asylum.  There  was  not  a  Puritan  fireside  in  England 
where  the  hope  of  going  to  America  was  not  enter- 
tained. During  the  ten  or  eleven  years  preceding  the 
Long  Parliament  not  less  than  two  hundred  ships  left 
England,  bearing  towards  the  Western  World  twenty 
thousand  Puritans.  "  Farewell,  dear  England,"  they 


16  THE    CHURCH    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

said,  as  the  English  coast  faded  from  their  view,  while 
Winthrop's  followers  wrote  back  to  the  less  fortunate 
brethren :  "  Our  hearts  shall  be  fountains  of  tears  for 
your  everlasting  welfare,  when  we  shall  be  in  our  poor 
cottages  in  the  wilderness." 

6.  The  Amalgamation  of  the  Colonies  of  Plymouth  and 
Massachusetts  Bay  was  only  a  question  of  time.     The 
two  bodies  differed  essentially.     The  Plymouth  men 
had  no  royal  authority;  were  without  charter;  cared 
nothing  for  it;  rejoiced  in  their  independence;   were 
outside  of  the  Church  of  England  ;  indeed,  carried  a 
free  lance  from  the  hour  they  left  Scrooby  for  Holland. 
The  men  of  Massachusetts  Bay  were  a  political  body. 
The  charter  was  to   the  Governor   and  Company  of 
Massachusetts  Bay  in  New  England.     They  had  large 
authority,  and  could  admit  new  members  on  any  terms 
they  pleased.     They  professed  strong  attachment  to 
the  king,  but  enjoyed  the  liberty  of  an  ocean  between 
Massachusetts  Bay  and  Charles  I. 

7.  A  Serious  Question  now  arose:   How  would  these 
two   colonies   stand   related   to   each   other?     While 
Massachusetts  Bay  Colony  had  royal  credentials,  and 
was   of  greater  number,  the  Plymouth  Colony  was 
older  ;  had  been  making  laws  ;   expanding ;   studying 
the  Indian  character ;  organizing  a  church  ;  developing, 
under  Miles  Standish,  a  military  system  ;  in  fact,  found- 
ing a  nation.     The  smaller  body  gave  strength  to  the 
larger.     Whatever  bonds  held  the  Massachusetts  men 
to  dear  England  were  now  seen  to  be  useless.     In  due 
time  the  two  bodies  were  marvellously  alike — all  were 
separatists  from  the  Establishment ;  all  met  together 
in  ecclesiastical  synods;  the  civil  and  the  religious  life 
became  a  unit.     Little  Plymouth  had  proved  stronger 
than  large  Massachusetts  Bay. 


CHAPTER  V. 

MARYLAND,  PENNSYLVANIA,  AND   OTHER   ENGLISH    COLO- 
NIES. 

1.  The  Colony  of  Maryland  was  the  only  English  col- 
ony of  the  Roman  Catholic  faith.  Sir  Charles  Calvert 
(Lord  Baltimore)  had  been  a  Protestant,  but  became 
a  Roman  Catholic.  England  was,  therefore,  no  place 
for  him.  He,  with  a  company  of  the  same  communion, 
secured  a  charter  for  the  founding  of  a  colony  in  Mary- 
land. In  order  to  carry  out  his  plan  he  had  the  shrewd- 
ness to  see  that  a  colony  of  Roman  Catholics  alone 
would  not  be  tolerated.  The  first  Lord  Baltimore 
died  before  his  charter  received  the  royal  seal,  but  the 
pledges  were  made  good  to  his  son  Cecil,  the  second 
Lord  Baltimore.  Freedom  was  granted  to  all  Chris- 
tian faiths.  The  first  Maryland  law  was :  "  No  person 
within  this  province  professing  to  believe  in  Jesus 
Christ  shall  be  in  any  ways  troubled,  molested,  or  dis- 
countenanced for  his  or  her  religion,  or  in  the  free  ex- 
ercise thereof."  This  was  the  first  declaration  of  per- 
fect religious  liberty  in  the  New  World.  The  colonists, 
about  two  hundred  in  number,  arrived  in  1634.  The 
colony  was  called  Maryland,  after  Henrietta  Maria, 
the  wife  of  Charles  I.  The  first  stage  in  its  history 
was  prosperous.  While  the  Catholics  were  at  the 
outset  in  the  majority,  the  Protestants  increased  so 
rapidly  that  they  soon  gained  the  upper  hand.  By 
the  end  of  the  century  the  Protestants  had  control. 
2 


18  THE    CHURCH    IN   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

The  Church  of  England  became  the  faith  of  the  col- 
ony. Laws  were  even  enacted  against  the  Roman 
Catholics. 

2.  Other   Southern   Colonies    were    now    organized. 
North  Carolina  was  settled  mainly  through  the  Vir- 
ginia colonists,  who  went  thither,  introduced  their  own 
usages  and  laws,  and  established  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land as  the  faith  of  the  colony.     South  Carolina  also 
received  colonial  settlers  from  Virginia.     It  began  to 
be  a  colonial  field  about  1670.     Its  laws  were  at  first 
very  liberal,  all  faiths  being  protected  with  equal  favor. 
But  in  time  the  Church  of  England  gained  greatest 
strength,  and  became  the  established  ecclesiastical  sys- 
tem.    Georgia  was   colonized  by  the   humane  Ogle- 
thorpe  in  1732.     He  brought  thither  a  colony  consist- 
ing mostly  of  English  debtors.     At  this  time  one  of 
the  most  badly  treated  of  all  classes  in  England  were 
the  debtors.    The  mere  inability  to  pay  a  debt  was  the 
ground  of  grossest  inhumanity.    These  people  were  in- 
vited to  join  Oglethorpe,  and  they  became  the  basis  of  the 
future  population  of  Georgia.     Persecuted  Protestants 
from  Austria  settled  later  in  Georgia.     Jews  were  wel- 
comed.   In  Oglethorpe's  colony  were  John  and  Charles 
Wesley,  who  came  as  missionaries  to  the  Indians. 

3.  The  First  Colonists  in  Pennsylvania  were  Swedes, 
Dutch,  and  English.     But  the  first  charter  for  a  regu- 
lar colony  was  granted  to  William  Penn,  by  Charles 
II.,  in   1681.      Though   Penn  was  a  Quaker,  and  his 
faith  prevailed   among   the  people   whom   he   led  to 
Pennsylvania,  all  communions  were  granted  full  lib- 
erty.    Penn  visited  Germany,  and  large  numbers  of 
Germans  accepted  his  invitation  and  settled  in  the 
new  colony.    Penn's  just  and  humane  attitude  towards 
the  Indians  made  them  the  friends  of  his  colony.     He 


MARYLAND    AND    OTIIEK    ENGLISH    COLONIES.          19 

bought  of  them  the  land  where  Philadelphia  now 
stands.  They  promised:  "We  will  live  in  love  with 
William  Penn  and  his  children,  and  with  his  children's 
children  as  long  as  the  moon  and  sun  endure."  The 
Quakers,  who  were  persecuted  everywhere  else  in  Amer- 
ica except  Rhode  Island,  came  to  Pennsylvania.  It  was 
the  refuge  for  all  the  persecuted  along  the  Atlantic 
coast. 

4.  The  Scotch-Irish  became  an  important  factor  in 
the  new  Protestant  colonization.     It  is  probable  that 
the  Scotch  stood  next  to  the  Irish  in  determining  the 
religious  quality  of  the  great  body  of  American  colo- 
nists.    Charles  II.,  when  he  became  king,  forgot  the 
service  which  the  Scotch  had  done  for  his  succession  to 
the  English  throne,  and  immediately  began  to  perse- 
cute them.     They  were  Presbyterians,  and  in  sympa- 
thy with  the  Puritans.     That  was  enough  for  Charles 
II.,  who,  being  a  Stuart,  was  not  bound  by  a  sense  of 
honor  or  obligation.     He  abolished  Presbyterianism  in 
Scotland,  and  established  the  Court  of  High  Commis- 
sion.    Persecution   of  the  Presbyterians   in  Scotland 
and  the  north  of  Ireland  became  the  order  of  the  day. 
They  saw  that  their  only  hope  lay  in  hastening  to 
America.     They  fled  the   country  in  large   numbers 
during  the  reigns  of  both  Charles  II.  and  James  II. 
They  went  to  no  particular  colony,  but  only  where  they 
had  an  opportunity  to  exercise  their  rights  of  con- 
science.    Some  went  to  Maine,  but  the  larger  number 
went  to  East  New  Jersey  and  Pennsylvania.     They 
went  westward  in  Pennsylvania  along  the  Susquehanna 
valley,  entered  the  Cumberland  valley,  and  continued 
into  Virginia,  North  Carolina,  and  Kentucky. 

5.  Other  Colonists  arrived  from  various  parts  of  Eu- 
rope.    The  Moravians,  under  the  guidance  of  Zinzen- 


20  THE    CHURCH    IN   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

dorf,  came  to  Pennsylvania,  organized  societies  in  Phil- 
adelphia, and  made  Bethlehem,  in  Pennsylvania,  the 
centre  of  their  work.  Moravians  also  settled  in  Con- 
necticut, North  Carolina,  and,  to  a  limited  extent,  also 
in  Georgia.  The  Salzburger  Protestants,  driven  out 
of  Austria  because  of  their  faith,  were  granted  land 
and  all  civil  and  religious  rights  by  Oglethorpe  in 
Georgia,  where  they  aided  largely  in  the  development 
of  that  colony.  Protestant  Poles  joined  in  the  colo- 
nial cun-ent  to  America.  Italian  Protestants  came 
over,  and  settled  in  New  York,  where  the  people  of  the 
Reformed  Church  extended  hospitality  to  them  and 
took  collections  in  the  churches  for  their  relief. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

CONTINENTAL  COLONIES  :   DUTCH,   SWEDES,    HUGUENOTS, 
AND    OTHEK    PROTESTANTS. 

1.  The  Dutch  were  among  the  most  daring  naviga- 
tors of  this  period.     Rejoicing  in  their  new  indepen- 
dence, they  sailed  over  distant  seas,  and  took  possession 
of  new  territory  with  all  the  vigor  and  heroism  which 
they  had  displayed  in  enduring  the  siege  of  Leyden, 
and  resisting  the  oppression  of  Spain.     Their  present 
possessions  in  the  East  Indies  are  still  a  testimony  to 
their  success  on  the  Oriental  seas.     "  The  Truth  of  the 
Christian  Religion,"  by  Grotius,  written  for  the  hea- 
then world,  was  one  of  the  strongest,  as  it  was  one  of 
the  first,  pleas  of  the  times  for  a  universal   gospel. 
America  came  in  for  its  share  of  Dutch  colonial  en- 
terprise.    The  discovery  of  the  North  River  by  Henry 
Hudson  gave  his  country  the  first  claim  to  Manhattan 
Island,  now  the  site  of  New  York.     The  Dutch  erected 
there  the  first  cluster  of  houses  in   1614,  which  was 
meant  as  a  trading-station  with  the  Indians.     They  es- 
tablished other  posts  along  the  coast,  but  this  was  al- 
ways the  centre  of  their  trade,  which  consisted  chiefly 
in  the  exchange  of  European  articles  with  the  Indians 
for  furs. 

2.  Little  Dutch  communities  were  established  on  Long 
Island,  Staten  Island,  along  the  Hudson  River,  west- 
ward along  the  Mohawk,  and  in  New  Jersey  along  the 
Passaic  valley.     They  organized  their  first  church  in 


22  THE    CHURCH    IN   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

New  York  in  1619.  A  church  in  Albany  was  erected 
about  the  same  time.  The  established  religion  was 
the  Reformed.  The  ministers,  such  as  Frelinghuy- 
sen  and  others,  who  were  educated  and  talented  men, 
came  directly  from  Holland.  The  Dutch  language  was 
used  in  the  pulpit,  and  even  continued  in  some  cases 
down  to  1764.  When  New  Netherlands  was  ceded 
to  the  English,  the  name  of  New  York  was  given  to  the 
town  and  the  colony.  The  population  of  the  town,  at 
the  time  of  the  cession,  was  about  ten  thousand. 

3.  The  Colony  of  New  Sweden   was   established  by- 
Swedes,  who  settled  on  the  banks  of  the  Delaware  in 
1638.     They  brought  with  them  the  Lutheran  faith, 
and  lost  nothing  of  their  Protestant  attachment  by 
removing   to   the   New  World.     Gustavus   Adolphus 
took  special  interest  in  the  colony  at  its  inception,  but 
was  killed  on  the  victorious  field  of  Liitzen  before  its 
success  was  assured.     The  pastors  of  the  colony  paid 
special   attention  to   the  conversion   of  the   Indians. 
Luther's    Catechism  was   translated   into   the   Indian 
tongue.     Campanius  and  Acrelius  sent  back  minute 
accounts  of  the  progress  of  the  colony,  and  their  works 
are  two  of  the  best  accounts  of  American  colonization 
extant.     There  was  early  conflict  with  the  Dutch,  who 
asserted  their  claim  to  the  Swedish  territory.     Peter 
Stuyvesant,  Governor  of  New  Netherlands,  led  an  ex- 
pedition against  the  Swedish  Colony  in  1655,  which, 
after  seventeen  years  of  prosperous  existence,  now  came 
to  an  end.     But  the  Dutch  ownership  was  brief.     The 
same  Stuyvesant,  nine  years  later,  hauled  down  the 
Dutch  flag,  surrendered  to  the  English  fleet,  and  New 
Amsterdam  henceforth  became  New  York. 

4.  The  French  Huguenots  were  an  important  part  of 
the  great  body  of  incoming  colonists.     The  Edict  of 


CONTINENTAL   COLONIES.  23 

Nantes  had  been  issued  in  the  interest  of  the  Protes- 
tants, who,  in  France,  bore  the  name  of  Huguenots. 
It  was  not  all  they  wished  or  merited,  but  it  guaran- 
teed certain  civil  and  religious  rights.  When  this  Edict 
was  revoked  by  Louis  XIV.,  it  was  a  signal  for  violent 
persecution.  As  many  as  half  a  million  of  French 
Protestants  were  driven  out  of  the  country.  Some 
werut  to  Holland,  others  to  Germany,  others  to  Eng- 
land, others  to  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  and  still  others 
to  America.  As  early  as  1662,  we  find  Jean  Teuton 
applying  to  the  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony  for  per- 
mission to  live  there.  He  was  granted  the  privilege. 
In  1686  a  tract  of  eleven  thousand  acres  of  land  in 
Massachusetts  was  ceded  to  a  Huguenot  colony,  who 
settled  at  Oxford.  In  1656  a  body  of  Huguenots  was 
welcomed  at  New  Amsterdam.  They  founded  the 
town  of  New  Rochelle,  on  the  East  River.  In  1666 
there  were  Huguenots  in  Maryland,  and  in  Virginia  in 
1671.  In  1679  Charles  II.  of  England  sent  two  ship- 
loads of  Huguenots  to  South  Carolina.  In  1703  the 
Huguenots  were  naturalized  as  citizens  in  New  York. 
The  Huguenots  who  came  to  America,  and  thus  dis- 
tributed themselves  in  various  parts  of  the  colonies, 
had  neither  the  ambition  nor  the  taste  for  political 
colonization.  Their  sole  purpose  was  freedom  for  life 
and  faith.  No  purer  Europeans  have  ever  landed  on 
the  American  coast  than  the  Huguenots  of  France. 
Their  descendants  have  adorned  every  path  of  life. 
In  war  and  in  peace  their  names  have  been  in  the 
front  rank  of  Christians  and  citizens. 

5.  The  Germans  in  Pennsylvania.  The  German  immi- 
gration to  America  arose  out  of  the  persecution  of 
Protestants  in  the  Palatinate  by  the  troops  of  Louis 
XIV.  of  France.  The  French  soldiers  persecuted  them 


24  THE    CHURCH   IN   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

without  mercy.  All  were  stripped  of  their  possessions, 
and  many  were  killed.  Those  who  escaped  had  to  flee 
the  country.  Some  fled  to  Northern  Germany,  where 
the  Elector  of  Brandenburg  gave  them  a  cordial  wel- 
come to  Berlin.  Others  fled  to  Ireland.  Some  settled  in 
England.  But  the  general  wish  was  to  reach  America. 
Some  settled  along  the  Hudson  and  the  Mohawk.  But 
the  most  of  the  Germans  went  to  Pennsylvania,  dis- 
tributing themselves  from  Philadelphia  into  the  inte- 
rior of  the  state.  The  new  colony,  founded  by  Will- 
iam Penn,  received  large  accessions  from  the  Ger- 
mans. While  they  did  not  become  Quakers,  they  were 
equally  welcomed,  and  became  an  important  popula- 
tion of  the  new  colony.  Before  the  Revolution  nearly 
all  the  Germans  coming  to  America  were  Protestants. 
From  Maine  to  Georgia  they  rapidly  distributed  them- 
selves, uniting  with  the  colonies  in  all  their  great  inter- 
ests, and  helping  to  plant  political  liberty  and  an  un- 
fettered gospel. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE    PROVIDENTIAL   PLANTING. 

1.  When  the  American  Planting  began,  Europe  was 
undergoing  a  complete  transformation.     The  old  con- 
ditions were  breaking  up,  and  a  new  departure  was  at 
hand.     The  English  language  had  taken  the  place  of 
the  Norman  French  in  England,  and  represented  the 
popular  drift  towards  larger  political  and  religious  lib- 
erty.    In  1362,  the  English  was  ordered  in  the  courts 
of  English  law.      Wyclif's  tracts  were  in  the  newly 
liberated  tongue,  and  gave  the  people  their  first  taste 
of  truth  in  a  language  dear  to  their  hearts.     Chaucer 
was  the  first  poet  to  present  in  English  verse  the  com- 
ing larger  life  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  intellect.     English 
and  Continental  commerce  was  extended  all  over  the 
face  of  the  world.    Caxton  had  made  the  printing-press 
the  possession  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race.    The  people  of 
England  now  first  saw  the  industrial  field  opening  be- 
fore them.      Agriculture  showed  signs  of   becoming 
what  it  was  in  republican  Rome — the  best  of  all  man- 
ual employments.     The  eastern  coast  of  England  was 
learning  from  the  Flemish  weavers,  who  were  now 
their  guests,  those  lessons  of  manufacturing  which  to 
this  day  have  made  England  a  large  producer  for  all 
lands. 

2.  Protestants  were  conquering  on  the  great  fields  of 
Germany,  England,  and  Scandinavia.    Even  when  they 
failed  in  liberty,  their.faith  in  final  triumph  failed  not. 


26  THE    CHURCH    IN   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

The  Puritans,  burning  with  shame  at  the  royal  decep- 
tion, looked  westward  to  find  their  true  home.  When 
the  colonies  in  America  were  planted,  both  from  Eng- 
land and  the  Continent,  the  people  who  constituted 
them  arrived  at  the  moment  of  European  awakening. 
They  brought  the  best  aspirations  of  the  Old  World, 
and  determined  to  realize  them  in  the  New.  The  hour 
of  American  colonization  was  the  fittest  one,  in  all 
modern  times,  for  the  New  World  to  receive  the  best 
which  the  Old  World  had  to  give. 

3.  The  Territorial  Distribution  of  the  colonists  was 
not  less  providential.  The  territorial  successes  of  the 
Spanish  knights,  and  Jesuit  fathers  who  accompanied 
them,  were  confined  to  a  doubtful  settlement  in  Flori- 
da, to  the  great  province  of  New  Spain  (Mexico),  and  to 
a  strip  of  the  Pacific  coast.  The  French  Roman  Catho- 
lic explorers  and  their  Jesuit  fathers  were  limited  to 
Indian  evangelization  and  an  uncertain  territory  along 
the  St.  Lawrence,  the  northern  chain  of  Lakes,  and  the 
Mississippi  valley.  The  great  English  field  of  coloni- 
zation lay  between  these  two.  It  is  the  temperate  belt 
of  North  America  —  the  region  which  nature  had  fit- 
ted for  the  most  aggressive  mission  in  Western  civiliza- 
tion. Spain's  field  has  become  more  contracted  as  the 
centuries  have  passed.  She  now  hold§  no  foot  of  land 
on  the  North  American  continent.  Louisiana  passed 
from  her  hands  into  French  possession,  and  in  1803  the 
French  sold  it  to  the  United  States.  This  purchase, 
made  to  fill  the  empty  exchequer  of  Napoleon  I., 
placed  the  Mississippi  in  the  possession  of  the  United 
States,  and  made  the  whole  domain  from  that  river  to 
the  Pacific  a  future  certainty.  The  French  bade  fair 
to  own  all  Canada.  The  ownership  was  at  last  re- 
duced to  the  fortunes  of  one  battle — that  of  Quebec, 


THE    PROVIDENTIAL    PLANTING.  27 

in  1759.  Here  the  English  conquered.  This  culmina- 
tion of  a  long  and  bitter  series  of  wars  between  France 
and  England  made  the  English  the  possessors  of  that 
immense  tract  lying  between  the  United  States  and  the 
polar  seas,  and  extending  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pa- 
cific. The  war  with  Mexico,  closing  in  1848,  gave  the 
United  States  the  great  state  of  Texas,  which  covers  an 
area  of  two  hundred  and  seventy-five  thousand  square 
miles.  The  territory  now  protected  by  the  flag  of  the 
United  States  is  a  rich  inheritance.  Every  part  of  it 
is  a  witness  to  the  providential  guidance  of  our  fa- 
thers to  these  shores,  and  a  reminder  of  the  obliga- 
tion upon  their  posterity  to  mould  our  immigrant  pop- 
ulation into  a  righteous  citizenship. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

POLITICAL   FRAMEWORK    OF   THE    COLONIES. 

1.  No  Uniformity  in  Authority  is  perceptible  in  the 
first   colonial  organizations.     Each  arose  out  of   the 
exigencies  of  the  time.     The  caprice  of  the  ruler,  the 
necessity  of  the  emigration  because  of   suffering  at 
home,  and  the  favor  of  the  leaders  with  the  court  and 
the  people,  were  each  a  factor  which  determined  the 
nature  of  the  new  government.     The  colonies,  when 
once  established  in  the  New  World,  were  simply  a 
group  of  local  governments,  a  cluster  of  diverse  re- 
publics, each  dependent  more  or  less  on  the  order  of 
the  government  at  home.     But  in  all  there  was  larger 
liberty  than  either  the  colonists  or  their  rulers  had  an- 
ticipated.    The  Atlantic  added  new  and  deeper  colors 
to  the  aspirations  for  freedom. 

2.  There  were  Four  Varieties  of  Colonial  Authority  and 
government.    One  was  the  Charter  governments.    This 
was  the  type  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  Rhode  Island,  and 
Connecticut.     Plymouth,  without  the  formality  of  char- 
ter, possessed  the  same  authority.     Large  liberty  was 
allowed,  and  larger  liberty  was  taken  than  was  granted. 
While  there  was  a  general  accounting  to  the  home  gov- 
ernment, these   colonies  had  the  power  of   assessing 
their  own  taxes,  regulating  their  ecclesiastical  system, 
and  determining  their  colonial  legislature.     The  gov- 
ernor had  to  account  to  England  for  his  conduct.    But 
the  Assembly  chose  his  Council,  and  the  Assembly  was 


POLITICAL   FRAMEWORK    OF   THE    COLONIES.  29 

elected  by  popular  suffrage.  This  large  liberty  to  the 
popular  will  was  the  one  fatal  cause  of  dissolving  the 
subjection  of  the  provinces  to  England.  It  bred  the 
Revolution,  and  the  Republic. 

3.  The  Provincial  and  Royal  Grants  were  the  second 
form  of  authority.     Here  was  the  closest  relation  to 
the  British  Crown.     Both  the  governor  and  the  coun- 
cil   were    appointed    by  the   king.     There   were    two 
houses  of  legislature,  the  council  being  the  upper  one. 
The  lower  house  were  elected  by  the  people.     New 
Hampshire,  New  Jersey,  Virginia,  the  two  Carolinas, 
and  Georgia  were  under  this  form.     The  third  were 
the  Proprietary  Grants.     This  was  a  grant  to  the  pro- 
prietors, who   could  appoint  their  own  governor  and 
convene  the  legislative  body.    But  there  was  provision 
that  no  act  should  be  done  which  would  interfere  with 
the  original  authority  of   the  crown.     Pennsylvania, 
Maryland,  and  Delaware  were  under  this  form.     In 
appearance,  this  was  the  most  liberal  of  all  the  forms 
of  colonial  government.     But  New  England  was  so 
managed  by  the  people  and  their  governors  that  they 
took  the  most  authority.     The  fourth  class  consisted 
of   irregular  colonies,  which  had  no  royal  authority 
whatever,  but  settled  among  others  who  did  possess 
it.     The  Huguenots,  the  first  Germans,  the  Salzburg 
Emigrants,  the  Moravians,  and  the  few  Polish  and  Wal- 
densian  Protestants  belonged  to  this  class.    They  iden- 
tified themselves  with  the  interests  of  the  colonists 
who  received  them  and  gave  them  hospitality. 

4.  Religious  Liberty  under  these  various  forms  was 
very  diverse.     Pennsylvania  and  Delaware  had  it  in 
the  fullest  sense.     The  Church  of  England  was  estab- 
lished  in  Virginia,  Maryland,  New  Hampshire,  New 
Jersey,  the  Carolinas,  and  Georgia.     But  even  here 


30  THE    CHURCH   IN   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

there  were  varieties  of  liberty.  In  Virginia  there  was 
only  little,  but  in  Georgia  both  Jew  and  Gentile  had 
equal  protection  from  the  law.  While  in  New  York 
the  Reformed  Church  was  established  by  the  West 
India  Company  as  early  as  1640,  there  was  practical 
freedom  of  conscience.  When  the  English  became 
possessors  of  New  Amsterdam,  they  were  tolerant  to 
all  faiths.  Of  all  the  New  England  colonies,  Rhode 
Island  was  the  first  to  declare  perfect  religious  tolera- 
tion. This  was  due  entirely  to  the  leadership  of  Roger 
Williams.  He  was  at  first  a  Puritan,  but,  adopting 
Baptist  and  Independent  views,  he  was  dismembered, 
and,  but  for  timely  escape,  would  have  been  forcibly 
exported  back  to  England. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

CHURCH    GOVERNMENT    IX    THE    COLONIES. 

1.  The  Church  Laws  in  New  England  proceeded  di- 
rectly from  the  civil  authority.     The  support  of  the 
clergy,  the  establishment  of  churches,  and  the  duties 
of  the  governing  body  were  prescriptions  of  colonial 
legislation.    In  the  first  Court  of  Assistants  for  Massa- 

O 

chusetts  Bay,  on  August  23,  1630,  the  first  question 
was  the  support  of  the  clergy.  In  the  same  year  the 
first  church  in  Boston  and  Charlestown  was  organized, 
and  Wilson  was  ordained  to  the  ministry.  There  was, 
considering  the  population,  a  rapid  increase  of  churches. 
In  fifteen  years  after  the  landing  at  Plymouth  the 
tenth  church  was  organized. 

2.  The  Church  of  England  being  the  established  faith 
for  the  most  of  the  colonies,  there  was  no  sepai-ate 
colonial  legislation  for  ecclesiastical  order.    All  that  the 
governors  and  councils  and  legislative  bodies  needed 
to  do  was  to  provide  for  the  support  of  the  clergy  and 
the  erection  of  edifices.     There  was  universal  scarcity 
of  ministers.     One  of  the  great  causes  of  the  religious 
decline  in  Virginia  was  the  Avant  of  clerical  supplies. 
All  who  were-  in  office  had  to  come  over  as  ordained 
men. 

3.  The  New  England  Synods  were  the  source  of  eccle- 
siastical doctrine  until  a  definite  order  of  local  church 
government  was  adopted.    Cotton's  book,  "  The  Keys," 
was  the  guide.     The  first  New  England  Synod  met  in 


32  THE    CHURCH    IK   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

1637.  But  this  was  a  tentative  measure.  No  platform 
of  discipline  or  doctrine  was  established  by  it.  In  1646 
a  request  was  made  to  the  legislature  of  Massachusetts 
that  it  could  call  a  synod  for  the  purpose  of  establish- 
ing a  "Platform  of  Church  Discipline."  Objections 
were  made,  many  people  fearing  tyrannical  measures. 
In  1647  the  synod  met,  by  order  of  the  legislature, 
and  Cotton,  Partridge,  and  Richard  Mather  were  ap- 
pointed to  frame  a  platform. 

4.  The  Cambridge  Platform.    In  1648  the  celebrated 
Cambridge  Platform  was  adopted  as  the  report  of  the 
committee.    The  Westminster  Confession  of  Faith  was 
adopted  as  the  doctrinal  basis  of  the  synod,  and  "  com- 
mended to  the  churches  of  Christ  among  us,  and  to 
the  honored  court,  as  worthy  of  their  due  consider- 
ation and  acceptance."     It  declared  that  the  members 
of  the  visible  Church  are  saints  ;  that  their  children  are 
holy;  that  the  offices  of  pastor  and  of  teacher  are  dis- 
tinct ;  that  the  special  work  of  pastor  is  to  attend  to  ex- 
hortation and  of  the  teacher  to  doctrine ;  that  the  office 
of  ruling  elder  is  distinct  from  those  of  pastor  and  teach- 
er ;  that  church  officers  are  to  be  chosen  by  the  Church, 
and  ordained  by  imposition  of  hands ;  that  the  requi- 
site for  membership  is  repentance  of  sin  and  faith  in 
Jesus  Christ ;  and  that  synods  and  councils  must  de- 
termine controversies  of  faith  and  cases  of  conscience, 
and  bear  witness  against  mal-administration  and  cor- 
ruption in  doctrines  and  manners.     In  1679  another 
synod  confirmed  this  Platform.     As  all  these  synods 
met  by  order  of  the  legislature,  and  were  approved  by 
the  same  body,  the  Platform  itself  had  all  the  force  of 
civil  law,  and  was  the  order  in  courts  of  law. 

5.  The  Reforming* Synod — the  one  of  1679 — was  held 
for  the  special  purpose  of  taking  action  in  regard  to 


CHUECII    GOVERNMENT   IN    THE    COLONIES.  33 

the  sufferings  of  the  New  England  colonists.  Probably 
at  no  time  in  the  colonial  or  national  history  has  there 
been  such  an  accumulation  of  disasters  as  at  this  time. 
The  Indian  depredations  were  widespread  and  devastat- 
ing ;  storms  along  the  coast  had  wrecked  many  vessels ; 
droughts  had  cut  off  the  harvests  ;  pestilence  had  raged 
in  various  localities;  and  fire  had  spread  havoc  in  the 
homes  and  among  industries.  The  legislature  called  on 
the  churches  to  send  elders  and  messengers  to  meet  in 
synod,  and  discuss  two  questions — What  are  the  pre- 
vailing evils  of  New  England?  and,  What  is  to  be  done 
that  these  evils  may  be  removed  ?  The  synod  concluded 
that  the  disastrous  phenomena  were  due  to  the  wick- 
edness of  the  people,  such  as  decay  of  godliness ;  spirit 
of  contention ;  young  people  not  mindful  of  the  obli- 
gations of  baptism  ;  profanation  of  the  sabbath  ;  pro- 
faning of  God's  name ;  neglect  of  prayer  and  scriptural 
reading ;  intemperance  ;  and  forsaking  the  churches. 
The  synod  also  declared  that  the  members  of  the 
churches  must  advance  in  piety,  renew  their  vows, 
support  the  schools,  and  cry  fervently  for  the  "rain 
of  righteousness."  The  result  was,  that  "this  synod 
was  followed  with  many  of  the  good  effects  which 
were  desired  and  expected  by  its  friends." 

6.  The  Final  Confession  of  Faith.  The  Boston  Synod 
of  1680,  of  which  Increase  Mather  was  moderator, 
adopted  a  Confession  of  Faith.  With  few  exceptions, 
it  was  the  same  as  that  adopted  by  the  Westminster 
Assembly,  and  later  by  the  General  Assembly  of  Scot- 
land. It  was,  in  fact,  only  more  elaborate,  the  same 
Confession  as  the  Cambridge  Platform,  adopted  in  1648. 
A  reason  was  urged  for  adopting  the  European  Re- 
formed Confessions,  "  that  so  they  might  not  only  with 
one  heart,  but  with  one  mouth,  glorify  God  and  our 
3 


34  TIIE    CHURCH    IN   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

Lord  Jesus  Christ."    Henceforth  this  was  the  doctrinal 
basis  of  the  churches  of  colonial  New  England. 

7.  The  Saybrook  Platform  was  adopted  by  the  min- 
isters and  delegates  of  the  Colony  of  Connecticut  in 
1708.  The  motion  for  a  synod  arose  from  a  request  of 
the  trustees  of  Yale  College  in  1703.  The  Saybrook 
Platform  was  a  repudiation  of  the  Savoy  and  West- 
minster Confessions  of  Faith,  and  embodied  a  system 
of  ecclesiastical  government  and  discipline.  It  was 
passed  by  the  legislative  body  as  a  law  of  the  colony 
of  Connecticut,  and  became  the  civil  constitution  for 
all  the  churches  of  the  colony. 


CHAPTER  X. 

EDUCATION. 

1.  The  Educational  Spirit  of  the  first  colonists  was 
intense.     The  Virginia  colony  numbered   among  its 
.members  men  who  had  been  thoroughly  educated,  and 
whose  associations  and  tastes  fitted  them  for  an  ap- 
preciation of  the  value  of  education  to  their  posterity. 
The  New  England  colonists,  while  not  from  an  equally 
elevated  social  position  in  the  Old  World,  were  far 
more  devoted  to  literary  pursuits,  and  were  more  keen- 
ly alive  to  the  importance  of  culture  for  the  well-being 
of  the  population.     It  was  the  authorship  of  the  Pil- 
grims which  caused  their  exile  in  Holland.     They  had 
written,  and  therefore  they  had  to  suffer.     John  Rob- 
inson, their  pastor,  was  a  disputant  against  Episcopius 
in   the  University  of  Leyden.     His  writings,  which 
have  been  preserved,  were  such  as  to  aid  largely  in 
moulding  the  New  England  mind  in  its  most  plastic 
period.    Brewster  was  both  publisher  and  author.    The 
records   of  Winthrop,  Morton,  and  others  show  the 
skill  with  which  the  first  Puritans  of  New  England 
knew  how  to  use  the  pen. 

2.  Elementary  Education.    One  of  the  first  thoughts 
of  the  New  England  colonists  was  elementary  educa- 
tion for  their  children.     The  first  common  school  was 
established  in  New  England  about  1645,  and  became 
the  herald  of  all  the  common  schools  in  the  United 
States.    Instruction  was  gratuitous,  the  expenses  being 


36  THE    CHURCH    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

met  by  direct  tax  on  the  inhabitants  of  the  town. 
Schools  of  various  grades  sprang  up  in  all  parts  of  the 
New  England  colonies,  though  Boston  very  early  be- 
came the  centre.  In  1635  an  appropriation  was  made 
for  Pormont  as  schoolmaster.  Six  years  afterwards 
the  foundation  was  laid  in  the  same  place  for  the  cel- 
ebrated public  Latin  School.  Academies  sprang  rap- 
idly into  existence.  Here  young  men  were  prepared 
for  Harvard,  Yale,  and  similar  institutions. 

3.  The  First  Important  Educational  Movement  in  Vir- 
ginia was  an  undertaking  to  found  the  "  University  of 
Henrico,"  for  the  education  of  English  and  Indians. 
This  began  within  a  few  years  after  the  settlement  in 
Jamestown.  Friends  in  England  took  pains  to  collect 
funds  for  the  purpose.  The  Bishop  of  London  gave 
one  thousand  pounds  sterling  for  the  new  institution 
of  learning,  and  another  contributor  presented  five 
hundred  pounds  for  educating  young  Indians.  The 
preacher  at  Henrico,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Bargrave,  donated 
his  library.  A  school  preparatory  to  the  University 
was  proposed,  to  be  located  at  St.  Charles  City,  to  be 
called  the  East  India  School,  the  first  gift  having  been 
made  by  the  officers  and  crew  of  an  East  India  ship. 
This  whole  movement  failed  because  of  the  Indian 
massacre  of  1622.  The  colonists,  however,  never  lost 
sight  of  the  founding  of  a  higher  institution  of  learn- 
ing. Occasionally  they  had  to  contend  with  the  op- 
position of  those  who  governed  them.  Sir  William 
Berkeley,  in  1670,  resisted  an  application  of  the  Lords 
of  Plantation  in  the  following  language:  "I  thank 
God  there  are  no  schools  nor  printing,  and  I  hope  we 
shall  not  have  them  these  one  hundred  years;  for  learn- 
ing has  brought  disobedience  and  heresy  and  sects 
into  the  world,  and  printing  has  divulged  them  and 


EDUCATION.  37 

libels  against  the  best  government.    God  keep  us  from 
both  !" 

4.  Harvard  College  was  the  first  institution  of  ad- 
vanced learning   in  the  American  colonies.      It  was 
founded  in  1639,  for  the  special  purpose  of  a  theologi- 
cal school,  for  the  benefit  of  posterity,  "  fearing  an  illit- 
erate ministry."    The  General  Court  had  already  voted 
four  hundred  pounds  for  a  public  school.     The  Rev. 
John  Harvard,  of  Charlestown,  made  a  bequest  of  over 
eighteen   hundred   dollars   as   an   endowment   to   the 
school.     He  also  donated  three  hundred  and  twenty 
volumes  as  the  beginning  of  a  library.     It  was  called 
a  college,  and  the  name  of  Harvard,  its  principal  bene- 
factor, was  given  to  it.    The  name  of  Newtown,  where 
it  was  located,  was  changed  to  Cambridge,  in  honor' of 
the  University  of  Cambridge,  where  many  of  the  New 
England  Puritan  fathers  had  been  educated.     The  leg- 
islature ordered  that  the  income  of  Charlestown  ferry 
should  be  granted  the  college  as  a  perpetual  revenue. 
The  Rev.  Henry  Dunster  was  appointed  the  president. 
The  mottoes  of  the  college  were :  In  Gloriam  Christi 
("  For  the  Glory  of  Christ ") ;  Christo  et  Ecclesiae  ("  To 
Christ  and  his  Church  ").    The  college  received  its  first 
charter  in  1650.     That  the  first  idea  of  the  founding 
of  Harvard — as  a  theological  school — was  never  lost 
sight  of  during  its  early  period  may  be  seen  in  the 
fact  that  during  the  first  century  of  its  history  three 
hundred  and  seventeen  of  its  alumni  became  ministers 
of  the  Gospel.     This  institution,  and  its  great  success, 
led  to  similar  ones  in  other  parts  of  New  England. 
Yale  followed  in  1701  ;  Brown,  in  1764  :  Dartmouth, 
in  1769;  Burlington,  in  1791;  and  Bowdoin  in  1795. 

5.  William  and  Mary  College  was  the  first  successful 
attempt  to  establish  an  institution  of  high  grade  in 


38  THE    CHURCH    IN    THE    UNITED   STATES. 

Virginia.  It  was  founded  in  1693.  As  Harvard  Col- 
lege grew  out  of  the  great  success  of  the  pastoral  labors 
of  the  Rev.  Thomas  Shepard,  so  the  college  of  William 
and  Mary  grew  out  of  the  long  and  arduous  labors  of 
the  Rev.  Dr.  Blair.  This  institution  became  the  most 
important  educational  centre  in  all  the  Southern  colo- 
nies. During  the  entire  colonial  period  it  was  the 
place  where  many  of  the  statesmen  and  clergy  of  Vir- 
ginia were  educated.  Its  power  was  felt,  not  only  in 
that  one  colony,  but  in  the  leadership  which  led  to  the 
War  of  Independence. 

6.  The  Remaining  Colonies  were  far  behind  New 
England  in  educational  measures.  New  York  had  its 
Dutch  teachers  early,  but  it  was  not  until  1746  that  its 
first  great  college — Columbia — was  founded.  Prince 
ton,  for  New  Jersey,  was  founded  in  the  same  year. 
Dickinson,  at  Carlisle,  was  established  to  meet  the 
wants  of  the  rural  population  in  the  valleys  of  the 
Cumberland  and  the  Susquehanna.  The  first  provision 
in  Maryland  for  a  school  was  in  1723.  No  school  of 
college  grade  was  established  in  Georgia  or  the  Caro- 
linas  before  the  Revolution.  Much  of  the  instruction 
given  throughout  the  Southern  colonies  was  private. 
The  planters  took  care  to  have  good  tutors  from  Eng- 
land brought  over  and  placed  in  charge  of  their  sons. 
The  tutors  lived  on  the  plantations,  in  the  families 
where  they  taught.  Governesses  were  provided  for  the 
daughters  of  the  planters.  This  method  of  education 
seems  to  have  been  preferred  to  the  schools  of  higher 
grade.  We  cannot  infer  from  the  absence  of  such 
foundations  in  the  South  that  education  was  neglected. 
For  the  great" mass  of  the  people  there  was  no  good 
provision.  But  for  the  more  wealthy  there  was  ample 
provision  in  this  private  system  of  instruction.  The 


EDUCATION.  39 

planters  had  not  only  their  tutors,  but  they  were  at- 
tentive to  the  introduction  of  the  best  works  in  all 
departments  of  European  literature.  The  libraries  in 
the  homes  of  the  planters  of  Virginia  and  other  South- 
ern colonies,  during  the  colonial  period,  were  in  some 
cases  magnificent.  Books  from  the  European  press 
were  constantly  arriving.  Besides,  many  young  men 
went  over  to  Europe  for  an  education.  The  fashion 
of  young  Americans  attending  the  foreign  universities 
seems  to  have  had  its  origin  in  the  South,  and  particu- 
larly in  South  Carolina,  during  the  colonial  period. 


CHAPTER  XL 

INTOLERANCE  IN  THE  COLONIES. 

1.  The  Intolerance  of  the  Old  World  was  transferred, 
with  modifications,  to  the  New.  The  two  colonies  of 
Virginia  and  Plymouth  represented  the  two  great 
rival  ecclesiastical  bodies  of  England — the  Established 
Church  and  the  Non-Conformists.  The  Virginia  colo- 
nists were  of  the  Established  Church.  They  had  with 
them  a  clergyman,  Hunt,  of  that  body,  and  were  under 
his  pastoral  care.  The  parish  system  was  adopted, 
after  the  established  model  at  home.  The  hostility 
in  England  to  the  Non-Conformists,  of  whom  the  Pu- 
ritans were  the  largest  portion,  was  reproduced  in 
Virginia,  and  exercised  without  any  show  of  serious 
opposition.  The  New  England  colonists  had  suffered 
keenly  from  the  intolerance  of  Laud  and  the  Crown  at 
home.  The  Act  of  Uniformity  of  1662  had  thrown 
out  of  their  livings  two  thousand  English  Non-Con- 
formist preachers,  for  the  sole  reason  that  they  would 
not  submit  to  re-ordination  and  full  endorsement  of 
the  Book  of  Common  Prayer.  The  Puritan  exile  to 
America  was  the  child  of  bitter  persecution.  The 
colonists  had  grown  into  solidarity  and  strength  under 
the  lash.  It  is  not  surprising  that  when  these  Puritan 
colonists  now  enjoyed  liberty  they  should  not  forget 
the  oppressor's  hand,  nor  have  a  very  kindly  feeling 
towards  those  who  had  persecuted  them.  Their  intol- 
erance was  their  means  for  guarding  against  a  new 
mastery  in  the  New  World. 


INTOLERANCE   IN   THE   COLONIES.  41 

2.  The  New  England  Intolerance  was  directed  against 
all  who  differed  in  religious  matters  from  the  colo- 
nists. The  Massachusetts  and  New  Haven  colonies 
were  particularly  severe  against  the  Quakers.  In  1658 
the  General  Court  of  New  Haven  passed  a  severe  law 
against  the  Quakers,  as  a  body  "  who  take  upon  them 
that  they  are  immediately  sent  from  God,  are  infallibly 
assisted  by  the  Spirit,  who  speak  and  write  blasphe- 
mous opinions,  despise  government,  and  the  order  of 
God  in  Church  and  Commonwealth."  The  penalty  of 
bringing  in  any  known  Quakers,  or  "  other  blasphe- 
mous heretics,"  was  a  fine  of  fifty  pounds.  If  a  Quaker 
should  come  for  a  business  purpose,  he  should  appear 
before  a  magistrate  and  receive  license  to  transact  his 
business,  and  in  case  of  first  disobedience  should  bo 
whipped,  imprisoned,  put  to  labor,  and  deprived  of 
converse  with  any  one  ;  for  a  second  offence,  should  be 
branded  on  one  hand  with  the  letter  H,  imprisoned,  and 
put  to  labor  ;  for  a  third  offence  his  other  hand  should  be 
branded,  and  he  be  put  to  labor  and  imprisoned  ;  and 
for  a  fourth  offence  he  should  be  imprisoned,  kept  to 
labor  until  sent  away  at  his  own  charge,  and  his  tongue 
bored  through  with  a  red-hot  iron.  This  law  continued 
in  existence  but  two  years.  Stiles  says,  that  notwith- 
standing this  law  no  witch  or  Quaker  was  ever  pun- 
ished in  the  New  Haven  colony.  The  Massachusetts 
laws  were  very  severe  against  the  Quakers.  The  records 
show  that  thirty  were  imprisoned,  fined,  or  whipped  ; 
twenty-two  were  banished  ;  three  had  an  ear  cut  off  ; 
and  four  were  hung.  The  same  colony  was  intolerant 
of  the  Baptists.  The  first  members  of  that  communion 
were  fined  and  imprisoned.  The  Maine  laws  were  hot 
less  intolerant.  The  first  Episcopalians  in  Connecticut 
were  cast  into  prison. 


42  THE    CIIUKCH    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

3.  Rhode   Island,  though   established   as    a    colony 
granting   full   religious   liberty,   soon    forgot  its  first 
principle.      Its  charter  ran  :  "  None  are  at  any  time 
to  be  molested  for  any  difference  in  matters  of  relig- 
ion."    But  its  first  Assembly,  in  1663,  declared  against 
the  admission  of  Roman  Catholics  as  freemen,  or  to  be 
chosen  as  colonial  officers. 

4.  The  Expulsion  of  Roger  Williams  from  Salem  was 
a  notable  case  of  colonial  intolerance.     He  gave  great 
provocation,  however,  and  the  wonder  is  that  he  did 
not  fare  worse  than  suffer  banishment.     He  was  a  Pu- 
ritan preacher,  and  arrived  with  the  Salem  Colony  in 
1631.    He  demanded  that  the  Church  in  Boston  should 
repent  publicly  of  the  sin  of  remaining  in  communion 
with  the  Church  of  England  before  coming  to  America. 
This  the  Church  in  Boston  refused  to  do,  and  Will- 
iams refused  to  join  the  Church.     The  magistrates  re- 
fused to  settle  him  as  pastor.     He  therefore  moved 
to  Plymouth,  where   he   became   an  assistant  pastor. 
Ho  returned  to  Salem  and  succeeded  Skelton  as  pas- 
tor, but  his  permanent  settlement  was  opposed  by  the 
magistrates  on  the  ground  that  he  had  taught  that  "  it 
is  not  unlawful  for  an  unregenerate  man  to  pray  ;  that 
the  magistrate  has  nothing  to  do  in  matters  of  the  first 
table  ;  that  there  should  be  a  general  and  unlimited 
toleration  of   all  religions;  that  to  punish  a  man  for 
following  the  dictates  of  his  conscience  was  persecu- 
tion ;  that  the  patent  granted  by  Charles  was  invalid, 
and  an  instrument  of   injustice  which  they  ought  to 
renounce,  being  injurious  to  the  natives,  the  king  of^ 
England  having  no  power  to  dispose  of  their  lands  to 
his  own  subjects."     As  a  result,  Williams  was  ban- 
ished.     He  fled  to  Rhode  Island,  where  he  founded 
the  present  city  of  Providence,  which  he  so   called 


INTOLERANCE    IN   THE   COLONIES.  43 

"  from  a  sense  of  God's  merciful  providence  to  him  in 
his  distress." 

5.  The  Real  Ground  of  Williams's  Banishment. — The 
case  of  Roger  Williams  has  produced  a  large  litera- 
ture and  a  wide  difference  of   opinion.      His  manner 
was  unfortunate.     A  man  of   gentler  method  might 
have  escaped  punishment.     But  it  is  likely  that  his  at- 
tack on  the  title  of  the  colony  was  the  vital  point  of 
his  offending.     The  New  England  colonists  would  al- 
low no  word  against  their  just  claim  to  their  colony. 
They  had  suffered  too  much  already  to  be  running 
any  risk  as  to  the  ownership  of  their  dearly-bought 
acres. 

6.  The  Virginia  Colony  compelled  all  persons  to  at- 
tend the  parish  worship.     Roman  Catholics,  Quakers, 
and  all  Dissenters  were  prohibited  from  settling  in  the 
colony,  and  people  of  every  country  who  had  not  been 
Christians  at  home  were  condemned  to  slavery.    There 
seems  to  have  been  more  leniency  at  first  than  later. 
In  1642,  owing  to  the  few  clergymen,  a  petition  went 
from  Virginia  to  the  Plymouth  Colony  to  send  down 
some  Puritan  preachers.     Knolls  and  James  were  sent 
in  answer  to  the  request.     But  they  were  not  permit- 
ted to  remain  long.     Fears  of  a  large  influx,  and  espe- 
cially of  new  opinions,  seem  to  have  been  entertained  ; 
for  these  men  were  sent  back,  and  their  followers  wero 
scattered.      In    1661    there  was    a   rigid    enforcement 
of  the  laws  against  Quakers  and  all  others  who  wero 
not  of  the  Established  Church.     When  the  dissent- 
ing bodies   increased,  the    same   prohibition  was  ob- 
served.     Moravians,   Baptists,   Presbyterians,   "New 
Lights,"  and   others   were  persecuted.      In   1747  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Davis  was  sent  to  labor  in  Virginia.    He  was 
a  wise,  learned,  and  skilful  man.     He  was  very  success- 


44  THE    CUUBCH   IN   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

fill.  His  character  and  conduct  were  such  as  to  com- 
mend him  to  all  the  people.  He  placed  the  Presbyte- 
rian Church  in  Virginia  on  a  secure  footing. 

7.  Maryland  and  New  York. — The   original  Roman 
Catholic   colony   of    Maryland   underwent   important 
changes  from  the  beginning.      The  liberty  of  all  to 
settle  there  was  made  use  of  to  such  extent  that,  by 
1704,  the  non-Catholics  were  in  the  majority.     An  act 
was  passed  by  the  General  Assembly  to  prevent  an  in- 
crease of  Roman  Catholics.     This  remained  in  force 
until  1776,  when  full  religious  liberty  was  restored. 
The  Reformed  Church  was  the  established  faith  in  the 
early  history  of  New  York.     Quakers  were  fined  and 
imprisoned.    In  1656  the  governor,  Stuyvesant,  forbade 
any  other  meetings  than  the  Reformed.     Baptists  were 
persecuted.     When  the  English  came  into  possession 
of  New  Amsterdam  (New  York),  they  were  tolerant 
of   the  Reformed  Church,  and  in  one  case  the  same 
building  was  used  for  the  Reformed  and  the  Episcopal 
services.      But  this  toleration  was  limited  at  first  to 
the   Reformed.      Members   of    other  communions  re- 
ceived little  favor.     The  first  Presbyterian  preachers, 
for  example,  Mackenzie  and  Hampton,  were  fined  and 
imprisoned  for  preaching  in  a  private  house. 

8.  The  Grounds  of  Opposition  to  the  Roman  Catho- 
lics are  not  hard  to  find.      They  are  the  only  body 
which  was  everywhere  opposed,  except  for  a  time  in 
Maryland,  and  all  the  while  in  Pennsylvania.      The 
extensive  missions  in  Canada,  with  the   line  of  mis- 
sions in  the  "West  extending  down  to  the  Gulf,  indi- 
cated a  progress  among  the  Indians  which  no  Protest- 
ant body  had  met  with.     The  relations  of  the  Roman 
Catholics  with  the  Indians  were  of  the  most  cordial  kind. 
The  Indians  were  taught  by  them  to  believe  that  the 


INTOLERANCE  IN  THE  COLONIES.          45 

English  were  their  enemies.  The  Puritans  had  good 
ground  for  hostility  to  the  Roman  Catholics  in  Eng- 
land ;  and,  when  to  this  was  added  the  Indian  opposi- 
tion to  the  New  England  colonists  by  the  Roman  Cath- 
olic missions,  it  can  occasion  no  surprise  that  every- 
where the  Roman  Catholic  was  regarded  as  not  only  an 
ecclesiastical  opponent,  but  a  civil  enemy.  Down  to 
the  Revolution  there  was  almost  a  universal  opposition 
to  Roman  Catholics  on  the  part  of  the  colonists — in 
New  England  very  decided,  but  in  the  Southern  colo- 
nies less.  Only  after  the  Revolution  were  all  confes- 
sions in  full  liberty  of  civil  and  religious  rights.  The 
great  Roman  Catholic  immigration  then  set  in,  and 
soon  the  people  of  the  Romish  communion  began,  by 
labor  and  by  numbers,  to  make  ample  amends  for  the 
early  proscription. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

EELIGIOUS    LIFE    OF   TUB    COLONIES. 

1.  The  Zeal  of  the  First  Colonists  was  intense  and 
steady.     No  material  embarrassment  was  permitted  to 
obscure  the  original  idea  of  colonization — namely,  an 
open  field  for  spiritual  life.     Extensive  revivals  pre- 
vailed throughout  New  England.     The  later  colonists 
were  received  by  the  earlier  groups  with  a  cordial  spir- 
itual salutation.     The  first  generation  of  Protestant 
American  citizens  took  better  care  of  new  immigrants, 
and  more  rapidly  incorporated  them  into  the  religious 
life  of  the  country,  than  any  succeeding  generation  has 
done.     Schools  were  founded,  churches  were  built,  and 
large  plans  made  for  the  conversion  of  the  Indians. 
The  prevailing  idea  of  the  Puritan  colonies  was,  that 
they  had  the  mission  of  building  up  great  religious 
commonwealths,  and  solving  in  the  New  World  the 
religious  problems  which  could  not  be  solved  in  the 
Old.     This  period  of  religious  fervor  continued  to  1600, 
when  a  season  of  decline  began,  which  continued  down 
to  1720.     The  decline  was  induced  by  the  devastating 
Indian  wars,  the  witchcraft  delusion,  and  the  political 
agitations  arising  out  of  the  oppressive  measures  of  the 
British  government. 

2.  The  New  England  Preachers  were   able  guides. 
Many  of  them  had  come  from  the  English  universities, 
and  brought  with  them  great  literary  skill,  an  intimate 
acquaintance  with  theological  controversy,  and  a  prac- 


RELIGIOUS    LIFE    OF   THE    COLONIES.  47 

tical  knowledge  of  the  dangers  of  political  oppression 
to  religious  life.  Wilson,  Cotton,  Shepard,  the  Ma- 
thers, Philips,  Higginson,  and  Skelton  wielded  the 
colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay  at  will.  The  religious 
spirit  absorbed  all  others.  The  preacher  was  the  real 
governor.  No  public  measure  had  any  chance  of  suc- 
cess without  the  clerical  support.  Brewster  in  Plym- 
outh, Hooker  in  Connecticut,  Davenport  in  New  Ha- 
ven, Roger  Williams  in  Rhode  Island,  and  Hunt  and 
Whitaker  in  Virginia,  were  the  giants  of  their  time. 
Political  preaching  was  the  order  of  the  day.  The 
Old  Testament  was  searched  for  parallels  of  duty  when- 
ever a  war  against  the  Indians  was  to  be  fought,  or  a 
new  British  aggression  was  to  be  resisted,  or  pesti- 
lence, famine,  witchcraft,  or  earthquakes  were  to  be 
wisely  interpreted,  and  guarded  against  in  the  future. 
Books  on  the  current  questions  were  multiplied.  The 
printing-press  of  New  England  was  the  powerful  bat- 
tery ever  thundering  against  evils  existing  or  appre- 
hended. 

3.  The  Great  Awakening  began  about  1735.  Its  first 
indications  were  seen  in  the  wonderful  effects  of  the 
preaching  of  Jonathan  Edwards  in  Northampton,  Mass. 
Whitefield  came  over  from  England,  and  made  sev- 
eral tours  through  the  Atlantic  colonies.  His  preach- 
ing attracted  multitudes,  and  the  numerous  converts 
through  his  preaching  united  with  the  non-episcopal 
churches.  The  number  converted  through  his  Amer- 
ican ministration  has  been  estimated  as  high  as  fifty 
thousand.  Prince,  Frelinghuysen,  Finley,  and  the 
brothers  Tennent  of  New  Jersey,  and  Davis  and 
Blair  of  Virginia,  and  others,  contributed  greatly  to 
the  spiritual  result.  All  the  churches  had  their  ear- 
nest leaders.  The  effects  of  the  great  revival,  which 


48  THE    CHURCH    IN   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

extended  from  New  Hampshire  down  to  the  Carolinas, 
were  immediately  seen.  A  new  spirit  of  toleration 
thrilled  every  nerve  of  the  colonial  churches.  New 
church  edifices  were  erected.  Many  young  men  entered 
the  ministry.  Schools  of  all  grades  sprang  into  exist- 
ence, and  large  funds  were  brought  from  their  hiding- 
places  and  cast  into  the  Lord's  treasury.  Religious 
books  multiplied.  Even  the  conservative  Benjamin 
Franklin  rejoiced  to  publish  the  sermons  of  Whitefield 
and  Tennent,  the  Westminster  Catechism,  and  the  pow- 
erful tracts  of  John  Wesley. 

4.  The  Writings  of  Puritans  in  the  Old  World  were 
promptly  introduced  into  the  New.     Special  pains  were 
taken  by  the  New  England  fathers  to  get  early  copies 
of  the  great  works  which  their  co-religionists  in  Eng- 
land were  producing.     The  works  of  Baxter  were  re- 
produced in  Boston,  and   brought  promptly  into  the 
early  New  England  homes.     The  songs  of  Watts  were 
reprinted  in  many  editions,  and  were  sung  in  the  most 
distant  settlements.     Bunyan  was  beloved,  and  became 
a  household  companion.     For  Milton's  poetry  there  was 
little  taste;  but  his  political  tracts  were  great  favorites, 
for  they  were  thunderbolts  against  tyranny.     Of  all  the 
writers  who  contributed  most  to  found  the  republic  of 
the  United  States,  Milton  probably  bears  away  the  palm. 

5.  The  Southern  Colonies,  though  visited  by  White- 
field,  did  not  share  extensively  in  the  great  revival  of 
the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century.     The  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church  in  Virginia  did  not  give  a  cordial 
welcome  to  the  revival  influences.     The  preaching  in 
Virginia  pulpits  was  generally  formal,  and  on  topics 
merely  moral.     Morgan  Morgan  and  Devereux  Jarratt 
were  notable  exceptions. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

COLONIAL    WORSHIP    AND    USAGES. 

1.  The  Sermon  was  the  Chief  Part  in  the  Puritan 
service.     The   preacher  was  supplied  with   an   hour- 
glass, and  it  was  not  uncommon  for  it  to  be  reversed 
twice  during  his  discourse,  when  a  new  start  was  made 
each  time.     There  was  a  wide  range  to  the  sermon. 
The  Old  Testament  was  a  favorite  part  of  the  Script- 
ures for   subjects.      The   formal   divisions,  extending 
to  great  numerical  length,  were  the  rule.     The  people 
were  kept  awake,  if  not  by  the  sermon,  at  least  by  the 
tithing-man,  who  walked  around  at  fit  times  with  his 
pole,  and  touched   the  offenders  on  the  head.     The 
colonial  period  was  the  golden  age  of  political  preach- 
ing in  New  England.     Soldiers  about  to  start  against 
the  Indians  were  addressed  in  the  church.     All  unu- 
sual phenomena  of  nature  were  recognized  in  the  dis- 
courses.    A  comet  was  not  too  small  an  affair  to  pro- 
duce several  sermons  by  Cotton  Mather,  which  in  due 
time  were  clothed  with  the  dignity  of   print.     The 
Election  Sermon  was  a  permanent  institution.     The 
Monday  Lecture  in  Boston  was  only  a  continuation 
of  the  Sabbath. 

2.  The  Prayer  was  long.     The  congregation   stood 
during  prayer.     There  was  first  an  invocation.     But 
the  long  prayer  was  second  in  importance  only  to  the 
sermon.      It  was   as  formal  as  the  sermon,  the  dif- 

4 


50  THE    CHURCH    IN   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

ference  being  that  the  divisions  of  the  prayer  were 
not  announced.  The  subjects  of  the  prayer  were  of 
great  number.  Few,  indeed,  we  may  well  imagine,  were 
the  public  events  which  were  not  considered  in  the 
course  of  the  "  long  prayer."  In  some  cases  the  pas- 
tor made  a  halt  in  his  prayer,  which  it  was  understood 
was  intended  to  be  improved  by  the  more  weary  to  sit 
down.  Dorchester  says  he  has  seen  a  manuscript  vol- 
ume of  sermons  of  Rev.  Thomas  Clap  (1725)  which 
contains  a  "  Scheme  of  Prayer,"  with  five  general 
divisions  and  two  hundred  and  forty  sub-heads.  Sew- 
all,  in  his  "  Diary,"  speaks  of  a  fast-day  service  where, 
after  three  persons  had  prayed,  and  one  had  preached, 
"  another  prayed  an  hour  and  a  half." 

3.  The  Singing  was  congregational,  and  the  psalm 
was  lined  by  the  ruling  elder.    The  "  Bay  Psalm  Book," 
printed  in  1640,  in  Boston,  was  the  universal  favorite. 
The  first  two  editions  of  this  work  were  the  Psalms 
of  David  as  we  find  them  in  the  Old  Testament.     But 
all  subsequent  editions  were  metrical.     The  "Psalte- 
rium  Americanum"  came  into  vogue,  and  was  a  great 
favorite  in  New  England.     It  contained  the  musical 
notes.     Great  care  was  taken  that  the  singing  should 
be  exceedingly  simple,  lest  an  approach  might  be  made 
to  the  choral  enormities  of  the  Church  of  England, 
which  to  the  Puritans  was  only  a  younger  Church  of 
Rome. 

4.  Special  Services  were  held  on  Thanksgiving  and 
fast  days.     The  law  required  that  all  should  attend 
these  services,  as  well  as  those  on  the  Sabbath,  or  pay 
a  fine  of  five  shillings  for  every  absence.    The  services 
on  Thanksgiving  and  fast  days  were  the  great  occa- 
sions of  the  year.     There  was  a  general  gathering  up 
of  themes  which  had  excited  public  attention.     The 


COLONIAL   WORSHIP   AND    USAGES.  51 

* 

preacher  had  before  hirn  the  great  officials  of  his  town. 
In  the  churches  of  the  larger  towns,  the  same  promi- 
nence was  given  to  the  service.  The  Governor  and 
his  Council  were  expected  to  be  present.  The  preacher 
considered  himself  unfettered,  and  he  made  full  use  of 
his  liberty. 

5.  The  Church  Buildings  in  the  Southern  colonies 
were  modelled  after  the  Church  of  England  edifices 
in  England.  While  small,  there  were  the  tower,  the 
bell,  the  choir,  and  all  the  arrangements  found  in  the 
smaller  churches  of  England.  But  in  New  England 
there  was  a  shunning  of  all  ornamentation.  Every 
reminder  of  the  Church  of  England  soon  became  an 
object  to  be  avoided.  The  log  church,  which  often 
served  as  fort  for  the  gospel  and  for  earthly  weapons, 
was  one  of  the  first  buildings  thought  of  in  the  new 
town.  No  carpet  or  stove  was  present  in  the  sanc- 
tuary, to  remind  of  the  repulsive  luxuries  of  the  wealthy 
across  the  sea,  or  to  distract  from  the  simple  severity 
of  the  gospel.  Even  the  Scripture  lesson  was  avoided 
in  New  England  during  the  seventeenth  century,  lest 
there  might  slip  in  a  ritualistic  tendency.  The  seats 
were  guiltless  of  cushions.  The  female  portion  of  the 
congregation  sat  on  one  side  of  the  church,  while  tho 
males  occupied  the  other.  The  people  from  the  coun- 
try brought  their  lunch,  and  remained  until  the  after- 
noon service  was  over. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

MISSIONS   TO    THE    INDIANS. 

1.  The  Conversion  of  the  Indians  was  one  of  the  early 
objects  of  the  colonists  in  America.  The  Virginia  col- 
ony took  the  first  steps.  In  1619  a  law  was  adopted 
requiring  the  instruction  of  Indian  children.  King 
Charles  I.  interested  himself  in  their  behalf,  and  di- 
rected that  collections  be  taken  in  all  the  churches  of 
England  for  training  up  and  "  educating  infidel  (In- 
dian) children  in  the  knowledge  of  God."  But  the 
most  systematic  and  successful  efforts  in  the  direction 
of  Indian  evangelization  were  made  in  New  England. 
In  reply  to  a  report  from  Plymouth  to  John  Robinson, 
at  Leyden,  he  wrote:  "Oh,  that  you  had  converted 
some  before  you  killed  any  !"  In  1636  the  Plymouth 
colony  adopted  an  act  for  preaching  the  gospel  to  the 
Indians  of  the  region.  A  special  building  was  erected 
in  connection  with  Harvard  College  for  the  education 
of  Indian  youth,  while  young  men,  the  sons  of  colo- 
nists, were  educated  in  Harvard  for  the  special  work 
of  Indian  evangelization.  The  chief  tribes  of  Indians 
were  the  Mohegans,  the  Narragansetts,  Pankunnaw- 
kuts,  Massachusetts,  Pawtuckets,  Algonquins,  and  the 
Housatonics.  The  most  successful  of  all  the  Indian 
schools  in  the  colonies  was  founded  in  1743,  at  Leba- 
non, Conn.,  by  the  Rev.  Eleazer  Wheelock.  He  re- 
ceived an  Indian,  Samson  Occum,  into  his  own  house, 
and  taught  him  five  years.  This  Indian  became  a  dis- 


MISSIONS    TO   THE    INDIANS.  53 

tinguished  preacher,  and  went  with  the  Rev.  N.  Whit- 
aker  to  England,  to  collect  funds  for  Wheelock's  work, 
which  had  now  developed  into  a  school,  where  about 
twenty  Indian  youths  were  taught.  It  was  called 
"Moor's  Indian  Charity  School,"  from  the  man  who 
gave  a  house  and  two  acres  of  land  to  Wheelock  for 
the  school.  Occum  and  Whitaker  collected  in  Eng- 
land seven  thousand  pounds  for  the  school.  In  1770 
Wheelock  removed  his  school  to  Hanover,  N.  H.,  out 
of  which  has  grown  Dartmouth  College. 

2.  John  Eliot,  the  Apostle  to  the  Indians,  stands  first 
of  all  men  in  devotion  to  the  conversion  and  education 
of  the  Indians.     He  was  born  in  England,  educated  in 
Cambridge  University,  and  came  to  Boston  in  1631. 
He  was  settled  in  Roxbury  as  pastor  in  1632.      He 
very  early  became  interested  in  the  Indians,  and  urged 
upon  the  General  Assembly  of  Massachusetts  the  neces- 
sity of  instructing  them.    The  grandeur  of  Eliot's  work 
lay  in  his  own  example.     He  hired  a  Pequot  captive  to 
instruct  him  in  the  Indian  language,  and  in  two  years 
was  able  to  preach  in  it.     Owing  to  his  representations, 
a  society  was  established  in  England,  called  "A  Cor- 
poration for  the  Promoting  and  Propagating  the  Gos- 
pel of  Jesus  Christ  in  New  England."     The  sum  of 
twelve  thousand  pounds  was  raised  in  England  for  In- 
dian evangelization. 

3.  Eliot's  Evangelistic  Labors  continued  to  the  end 
of  his  life.     He  was  about  forty-two  years  of  age  be- 
fore he  began  the  study  of  the  Indian  (Mohegan)  lan- 
guage, but  used  every  possible  means  to  perfect  him- 
self in  it.     With  his  usual  modesty,  he  lamented  to  the 
end  of  his  life  his  deficiency  in  mastering  it.     His  first 
group  of  Indians  was  at  Nonantum,  now  a  part  of 
Newton,  near  Boston.     He  then  began  to  work  at  Nc- 


54  THE   CHURCH    IN   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

ponsit,  a  part  of  the  present  Dorchester.  He  preached 
a  number  of  yeai'S  in  both  places,  without  compensa- 
tion, and  prayed  in  the  Indian  families.  At  no  time  in 
Eliot's  life  did  his  salary  exceed  fifty  pounds.  His 
eldest  son  preached  several  years  to  the  Indians  at  Nat- 
ick,  Pakemit,  the  present  Stoughton,  and  other  places. 
The  first  Indian  church  was  at  Natick,  where,  in  1670, 
there  were  about  fifty  communicants.  An  Indian 
laborer,  William  Sbawton,  preached  at  Pakemit,  and 
Tackuppa-willin  preached  at  Hassanamenit,  the  pres- 
ent Grafton.  Many  societies  of  Indian  worshippers 
sprang  up  in  consequence  of  the  labors  of  the  two  Eli- 
ots.  In  fourteen  towns,  within  seventy  miles  of  Bos- 
ton, there  were  Indian  services,  where  about  eleven 
hundred  Indians  were  under  direct  pastoral  care.  By 
the  year  1664  it  is  estimated  that  there  were  in  eastern 
Massachusetts  about  three  thousand  and  six  hundred 
"  praying  Indians."  The  Indians  became  not  only  mor- 
al, but  many  of  them  were  devout  Christians. 

4.  The  Literary  Labors  of  John  Eliot  are  among  the 
marvels  of  the  colonial  period.  He  learned  from  ev- 
ery quarter,  and  aimed  to  get  at  the  finest  shades  of 
meaning  in  the  Mohegan  tongue.  He  translated  Bax- 
ter's "Call"  and  Bayley's  "Practice  of  Piety."  He 
wrote  grammars  and  primers  and  other  small  works, 
six  in  all,  which,  in  literature,  bear  the  name  of  "  Eli- 
ot's Tracts."  These  works  are  now  very  rare.  Cop- 
ies of  them,  and,  we  believe,  of  all  Eliot's  works,  are 
to  be  found  in  the  Lenox  Library,  New  York.  The 
great  literary  achievement  of  Eliot  was  his  Indian  Bi- 
ble. The  New  Testament  was  published  in  Boston,  in 
1661,  and  the  Old  Testament  in  1663.  A  second  edi- 
tion appeared  in  1680-85.  This  work  was  printed  on 
type  sent  over  from  England  by  the  Corporation  for 


MISSIONS   TO   THE    INDIANS.  55 

the  Promoting  and  Propagating  the  Gospel  of  Jesus 
Christ  in  New  England.  This  was  the  first  Bible  print- 
ed in  the  New  World,  and  is  a  monument  to  the  philo- 
logical skill  and  sublime  devotion  of  John  Eliot  which 
will  long  continue  to  excite  the  admiration  of  men. 

5.  Other  Laborers  in  New  England  were  attentive  to 
the  spiritual  needs  of  the  Indians.     In  Plymouth  Col- 
ony the  Rev.  Mr.  Bourne  had  an  Indian  congregation 
of  about  five  hundred  on  Cape  Cod  and  the  vicinity, 
and  the  Rev.  John  Cotton  had  a  small  congregation 
on  Buzzard's  Bay.     The  two  Mayhews,  father  and  son, 
made  Martha's  Vineyard  the  field  of  their  labors,  where 
they  began  their  work  about  1649.     On  the  island  of 
Nantucket  there  were,  at  the  end  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  three  churches  and  five  congregations  of  "  pray- 
ing Indians."     The  Stockbridge  Mission,  in  Massachu- 
setts, was  under  the  care  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Sargeant,  one 
of  the  most  devoted  of  all  the  New  England  laborers 
for  the  aboriginal  tribes.     He  made  lengthy  journeys 
to  other  Indian  tribes.     He  introduced  manual  trades 
and  agriculture  for  the  boys,  and  taught  the  girls  the 
various  duties  of  domestic  life.     His  plan  was  large- 
ly that  which  our  government  has  been  too  slow  to 
learn — that,  to  build  up  the  Indian  character,  the  In- 
dians must  be  taught  the  exercises  and  employments 
of  the  usual  American  citizen. 

6.  Indian  Evangelization  in  Other  Colonies  was  not 
neglected.     The  Reformed  Church  of  Albany  organ- 
ized work  among  the  Mohawks  living  along  the  Mo- 
hawk River  about  the  time  when  Eliot  began  in  New 
England.      Schenectady  became  an  important  centre 
of  missionary  work,  and  the  Liturgy  of  the  Reformed 
Church  was  published  in  New  York  for  the  Mohawk 
tribe.     The  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  of  New  York 


56  THE    CHUBCH    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

published  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  in  the  Mohawk 
tongue  in  1715.  Moore,  Barclay,  Andrews,  Miles,  and 
the  Moravian  Rauch  were  zealous  missionaries  among 
the  Indians  along  the  Hudson  and  the  Mohawk.  Da- 
vid Brainerd,  in  1742,  began  work  among  the  Indians 
at  Kinderhook,  near  the  Hudson,  but  his  chief  labor 
was  on  the  Susquehanna.  His  career  covered  the  brief 
period  of  about  four  years;  but  such  was  his  devotion 
and  courage  that,  though  he  was  but  thirty  years  old 
at  the  time  of  his  death,  his  name  will  ever  be  associ- 
ated with  Eliot  as  a  master-workman  in  the  difficult 
field  of  Indian  evangelization.  What  Henry  Martyn 
was  to  India,  David  Brainerd  has  been  to  the  American 
Indians.  Hawley,  Forbes,  Kirkland,  and  Spencer  were 
strong  and  successful  laborers  among  the  Six  Nations. 
Hunt,  Whitaker,  and  Thorpe  distinguished  themselves 
in  Virginia  for  labors  in  behalf  of  the  education  and 
conversion  of  the  Indians.  But  this  work  came  to  an 
end  through  a  massacre  of  the  whites  by  the  Indians. 
John  and  Charles  Wesley  worked  for  a  while  as  In- 
dian missionaries  in  Georgia. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

THEOLOGICAL   MOVEMENTS. 

1.  The  Puritan  Mind  was  intensely  theological.     The 
experiences  of  the  Pilgrims  in  the  Old  World  had  been 
such  as  to  make  them  thinkers  on  fundamental  doctri- 
nal themes.     The  Brownists  owed  their  existence  as  a 
separatist  community  to  their  divergence  from  the  pre- 
vailing doctrines  of  the  Established  Church.    The  great 
Arminian  controversy  in  Holland  was  in  progress  in 
Leyden  during  their  residence  there.     John  Robinson, 
their  spiritual  guide,  was  a  warm  disputant  on  the 
Calvinistic  side.     Their  theological  tendency  was  not 
thrown  into  the  background  by  their  immigration  to 
America.      The  early  Puritan  preachers  were  skilful 
theologians.      The  sermon  was  often  a  mere  section 
out  of  dogmatic  theology.     The  future  theological  in- 
tegrity of  the  colonies  seems  to  have  been  prominent 
in  the  minds  of   all  the  spiritual  leaders,  and  not  to 
have  been  forgotten  by  the  civil  administrators.     The 
frequent  synods  busied  themselves  fully  as  much  with 
theological  adjustments  as  with  measures  for  parish 
government. 

2.  The  Hutchinsonian  Controversy  arose  out  of  the 
extreme  views  of  a  capable  woman,  Ann  Hutchinson. 
While  she  was  the  leader,  she  was  largely  assisted  by  her 
brother-in-law,  Wheelwright.     She  was  described  as  a 
"gentlewoman  of  nimble  wit  and  voluble  tongue,  of  emi- 
nent knowledge  in  the  Scriptures,  great  charity,  and  not- 


58  THE    CHUKCH    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

able  helpfulness  in  cases  of  need  among  her  own  sex." 
She  claimed  great  attainments  in  spiritual  life,  and  was 
very  impressive  in  declaring  her  extreme  views.  She 
held  that  justification  is  produced  by  direct  revelation 
or  impression ;  that  there  is  at  once  a  perfect  union  be- 
tween the  Holy  Ghost  and  the  justified  individual ; 
that  the  Holy  Ghost  dwells  in  the  justified  one  in  per- 
son; that  henceforth  such  an  individual  is  as  incapable 
of  sinning  as  the  Holy  Ghost  himself  ;  that  the  letter 
of  the  Scriptures  is  subordinate,  being  only  a  covenant 
of  works  ;  and  that  the  Spirit  must  be  looked  to  for 
the  covenant  of  grace.  Her  followers  carried  her 
views  to  still  greater  extravagance  :  that  Christ  him- 
self is  a  part  of  the  new  creature  ;  that  Christ  and  the 
new  creature  are  personally  one  ;  that  a  man  is  justi- 
fied before  he  believes  ;  that  believers  are  not  com- 
pelled to  obey  the  divine  law  ;  that  the  Sabbath  is  the 
same  as  other  days  ;  that  the  soul  is  not  immortal  un- 
til it  becomes  united  to  Christ ;  that  the  final  doom  of 
the  wicked  is  annihilation  ;  that  there  is  no  resurrec- 
tion of  the  body  ;  and  that  the  ground  of  all  salvation 
is  assurance  by  immediate  revelation. 

3.  The  Rapid  Spread  of  the  Hutchinsonian  views  was 
due  largely  to  the  great  ability  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson 
herself,  and  her  influence  with  leading  men  in  the  Bos- 
ton Church,  of  which  she  was  a  member.  Many  of  the 
leading  people  adopted  her  opinions,  and  were  not  slow 
in  propagating  them.  An  effort  was  made  to  have 
Wheelwright  settled  as  pastor  in  Boston,  which  led 
to  great  excitement  and  serious  divisions.  Governor 
Vane,  and  Cotton,  the  pastor  in  Boston,  placed  them- 
selves on  the  side  of  the  Hutch  insonians.  The  General 
Court  met  in  1637,  and  the  matter  came  to  a  crisis. 
Vane  and  those  who  sympathized  with  him  were  in 


THEOLOGICAL   MOVEMENTS.  59 

the  minority.  lie  was  not  re-elected  governor,  but 
Winthrop,  who  was  orthodox,  was  elected  in  his  stead. 
Wheelwright  was  expelled  as  "  guilty  of  sedition." 
The  Synod  of  1637  declared  against  the  sedition,  and 
Cotton  finally  came  back  to  the  orthodox  position,  and 
declared  that  he  "disrelished  all  these  opinions  and  ex- 
pressions, as  being  some  of  them  heretical,  some  of  them 
blasphemous,  some  of  them  erroneous,  and  all  of  them 
incongruous."  The  respectability  of  the  Hutchinso- 
nian  aberration  disappeared  with  the  surrender  of  Cot- 
ton, who,  as  Mather  declared,  "  was  not  the  least  part  of 
the  country."  Mrs.  Hutchinson  was  excommunicated, 
went  to  the  Rhode  Island  colony,  and  united  with 
the  co-religionists  of  Roger  Williams.  But  she  had  a 
small  following  here,  and  removed  farther  south,  where 
she  was  murdered  by  the  Indians. 

4.  The  Half-way  Covenant. — The  first  practice  of  the 
New  England  Church  was  that  only  persons  professing 
to  have  faith  in  Christ,  and  to  have  become  regener- 
ate, were  members  of  the  Church,  and  had  the  privi- 
lege of  having  their  children  baptized.  But  many  of 
the  descendants  of  the  colonists,  and  many  who  came 
over  as  new  members  of  the  colonies,  made  no  profes- 
sion of  experimental  faith.  What  was  their  position  ? 
The  parents  of  such  adults  were  anxious  they  should 
be  received  as  members  of  the  Church,  and  that  their 
children  should  be  baptized.  Others  declared  against 
such  action.  Then,  again,  the  law  of  1631  maintained 
those  who  were  not  members  of  the  Church  could  not 
be  political  freemen  :  "  No  man  shall  be  admitted  to 
the  freedom  of  this  body  politic  but  such  as  are  mem- 
bers of  some  of  the  churches  within  the  limits  of  the 
same."  If  only  those  professing  experimental  religion 
could  belong  to  the  Church,  many  children  could  not 


60  THE    CHURCH    IX    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

be  baptized,  and  many  adults  could  not  have  political 
rights.  Connecticut  was  the  first  scene  of  this  impor- 
tant controversy,  but  Boston  was  the  place  where  the 
matter  culminated.  The  meeting  of  ministers  in  Bos- 
ton in  1657,  and  the  General  Synod  there  in  1662,  de- 
cided in  favor  of  granting  membership  in  the  Church 
to  all  who  owned  in  person  the  covenant  made  in  their 
behalf  by  their  parents,  and  led  a  life  "not  scandal- 
ous," and  gave  themselves  and  their  children  to  the 
Lord.  To  the  children  of  such  persons  the  rite  of  bap- 
tism should  not  be  denied.  This  synodal  deliverance 
was  called  the  Half -way  Covenant,  which  produced 
universal  agitation  in  New  England,  and  was  not  sup- 
pressed until  the  great  revival  in  the  middle  of  the  last 
century. 

5.  The  Effect  of  the  Half-way  Covenant  was  univer- 
sally disastrous.     Persons  who  now  entered  the  Church 
could  do  so  on  simple  acknowledgment  of  the  baptis- 
mal covenant  and  the  leading  of  a  moral  life.     Regen- 
eration was  not  necessary.     Children  of  the  unregener- 
ate  could  be  baptized,  and  the  whole  family  were  then 
connected  with  the  Church.     Repentance  might  be  felt 
to  be  important,  but,  not  being  made  a  condition  of 
membership,  its  value  was  not  considered  as  great  as 
formerly.      The  general  tendency  was  a  lowering  of 
the  spiritual  standard  of  church  membership  through- 
out New  England. 

6.  A  New  View  of  the  Lord's  Supper  was  now  ad- 
vanced.     It  was  held  that   the  Lord's  Supper  was  a 
means  of  regeneration,  and  that  unconverted  persons 
might   safely  be   admitted  to   the   sacrament  of  the 
Lord's  Supper.      The  Brattle  Street  Church,  Boston, 
was  the  first  to  advocate  this  new  doctrine.     The  Rev. 
Solomon  Stoddard,  of   Northampton,  grandfather  of 


THEOLOGICAL    MOVEMENTS.  61 

Jonathan  Edwards,  publicly  defended  it,  in  1707,  in  a 
sermon  in  which  he  declared  that  "  sanctification  is  not 
a  necessary  qualification  for  partaking  of  the  Lord's 
Supper,  and  that  the  Lord's  Supper  is  a  converting 
ordinance."  His  views  were  opposed  by  Increase  Ma- 
ther and  others.  But  Stoddard's  theory  was  the  natu- 
ral consequence  of  the  Half-way  Covenant.  It  found 
favor  in  many  parts  of  New  England.  The  effect  was 
to  intensify  the  disastrous  tendency  of  the  Half-way 
Covenant.  The  churches  were  greatly  increased  by 
the  addition  of  unconverted  members.  Some  of  the 
churches  consisted  chiefly  of  unregenerate  people.  The 
conditions  of  repentance  and  conversion  not  being  re- 
quired for  admission  to  membership  and  to  the  sacred 
ordinances,  there  was  the  same  laxity  in  receiving  un- 
converted candidates  into  the  ministry.  Between  the 
years  1680  and  1750  many  such  persons  became  preach- 
ers, and  were  settled  as  pastors.  Their  sermons  were  un- 
spiritual,  and  their  parishioners  were  cold  and  formal. 
The  outcome  of  the  whole  movement  was  the  great 
Unitarian  secession.  Cotton  Mather's  prediction  was 
fulfilled  :  "  Should  this  declension  continue  to  make 
progress  as  it  has  done,  in  forty  years  more  convul- 
sions will  ensue,  arrd  churches  will  be  gathered  out  of 
churches." 


II. 

"Rational  perfoD. 

1783-1800. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE  CHURCH  AT  THE  FOUNDING  OF  THE  REPUBLIC. 

1.  The  Contrast  between  the  Church  in  the  Old 
World  and  in  the  New,  during  the  one  hundred  and 
eighty-six  years  of  the  Colonial  Period,  was  marked. 
The  controversies  of  Protestantism  on  the  Continent, 
especially  in  Germany,  had  a  demoralizing  effect.  The 
struggle  between  the  Lutherans  and  the  Reformed 
had  thrown  the  spiritual  life  into  the  background,  and 
had  given  way  to  the  incoming  of  rationalism  from 
England  and  France,  and  thus  made  the  growth  of  a 
native  German  scepticism  a  lamentable  fact.  In  Eng- 
land the  Wesleyan  revival  was  the  only  salutary  force 
against  the  alarming  Deism.  The  religious  life  in 
America,  while  it  was  always  more  or  less  disturbed 
by  European  impulses,  had  grown.  Now  and  then 
there  was  an  interruption.  There  were  abnormal  ten- 
dencies, such  as  might  be  expected  in  a  land  where  the 
conditions  were  new.  But  the  general  life  had  been 
progressive  and  salutary.  The  theological  activity, 
the  prevalence  of  revivals,  the  building  of  churches, 


THE  CHURCH  AT  THE  FOUNDING  OP  THE  REPUBLIC.    63 

and  the  evangelistic  spirit,  had  produced  a  strong  and 
aggressive  type  of  ecclesiastical  life.  The  colonial 
founders  of  the  American  Church  builded  wisely,  and 
made  the  best  possible  use  of  the  materials  at  their 
command. 

2.  There  was  a  General  Spiritual  Decline  in  the  re- 
ligious life  of  the  Church  from  about  1765  until  the 
end  of  the  eighteenth  century.     The  absorbing  topic 
was  the  struggle  for  national  independence.     All  spir- 
itual interests  languished.    When  once  the  Revolution 
commenced,  it  became  the  passion  of  the  people  until 
it  was  concluded.     Many  of  the  preachers  entered  the 
army  as  chaplains  and  officers.     A  large  number  of 
congregations  were  without  pastoral  care,  and  were 
broken  up.     Some  of  the  churches  were  converted  into 
hospitals.     Money  which  would  have  flowed  into  spir- 
itual channels  was  turned  into  the  scanty  treasury  of 
the  colonies  for  Washington's   army.     The   peaceful 
Quakers  and  Mennonites  of  Pennsylvania  forgot  their 
usual  attitude,  and  eagerly  enlisted  in  the  army.    When 
peace  came,  a  new  ecclesiastical  life  needed  to  be  built 
up.     At  no  time  in  the  history  of  the  American  Church 
was  the  condition  so  serious.     It  was  a  question,  how 
would  Christian  people  now  act,  with  the  boon  of  a 
nation  in  their  hands  ?    Until  the  beginning  of  the  nine- 
teenth centuiy  it  was  a  doubt  whether  the  national  in- 
dependence would  prove  a  spiritual  blessing  or  a  curse. 

3.  The  Sceptical  Tendencies  from  France  became  a 
serious   threat.     The   long   residence   of   Franklin  in 
France,  the  sympathy  of   Jefferson  with  Deism,  the 
popular  writings  of  Thomas  Paine,  and  the  helpful- 
ness of  Lafayette  and  other  Frenchmen  in  our  na- 
tional struggle  had  the  effect  of  making  French  in- 
fidelity  popular.     William   and  Mary  Coltege,  Yale 


64  THE    CHURCH    IN   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

College,  the  incipient  Unitarianism  in  Harvard,  and 
certain  unfavorable  indications  in  Princeton  College 
made  it  appear  that  unless  there  was  some  great  spir- 
itual movement  the  country  might  be  overspread  with 
scepticism.  There  were  men  who  saw  the  danger,  and 
labored  earnestly  to  avert  it.  Happily,  with  the  begin- 
ning of  the  new  century  there  was  a  great  revival,  which 
extended  over  a  larger  area  than  any  former  one.  The 
infidelity  of  the  time  was  consumed.  The  churches 
found  all  their  energies  taxed  to  take  proper  care  of 
their  new  adherents  and  provide  schools  for  the  young. 
4.  The  Numerical  Strength  of  the  Church  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  National  Period  was  about  as  follows : 

Ministers.     Churches. 

Episcopalians 250  800 

Baptists 350  380 

Congregationalists 575  700 

Presbyterians 140  300 

Lutherans 25  60 

German  Reformed 25  60 

Reformed  Dutch 25  60 

Methodists 24  11 

Associate 13  20 

Moravians 12  8 

Roman  Catholics                               .  26  52 


Total 1465          1951 

There  was  a  decided  tendency  in  several  of  these 
bodies  to  divide  on  questions  of  doctrine  and  polity. 
It  seems  to  have  been  a  time  when  the  spirit  of  na- 
tional independence  invaded  the  ecclesiastical  pale. 
The  air  was  filled  with  rumors  of  division.  Some  of 
the  churches  did  suffer  serious  schisms  at  this  time, 
Avhich  have  not  yet  been  healed. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE    SEPARAT1OX    OF    CHURCH    AND    STATE. 

1.  The  Church  had  been  a  Part  of  the  Colonial  System. 
— The  citizen  had  been  taxed  for  the  support  of  the 
Church.     In  Massachusetts  Colony  only  the  man  who 
was  a  member  of  the  Church  could  hold  political  office. 
In  Maryland  and  Virginia  and  some  other  Southern 
colonies  the  Established  Church  of  England  was  as 
fully  a  part  of  the  system  of  civil  government  as  in 
England  itself.    There  was  a  great  variety  in  the  mode 
of  connection  between  the  Church  and  the  colonial 
government.      But  the   connection  was  positive   and 
strong.     When  the  Revolution  severed  the  civil  bonds 
with  England,  a  strong  tendency  towards  the  separa- 
tion of  the  Church  from  all  political  government  im- 
mediately set  in.    The  general  conscience  demanded  that 
the  new  republic  should  leave  the  largest  liberty  to  the 
individual  judgment.     The  people  insisted  on  placing 
the  support  of  the  Church,  in  all  its  departments,  upon 
the  voluntary  judgment  of  the  adherents.     This  asser- 
tion of  the  voluntary  principle  in  ecclesiastical  support 
and  government  was  one  of  the  most  original  of  all  the 
great  phenomena  of  this  stage  in  our  national  life. 

2.  Virginia  was  the  scene  of  the  first  great  move- 
ment to  carry  into  practical  effect  the  voluntary  prin- 
ciple.    To  the  Baptists  belongs  the  honor  of  being  the 
herald.     They  began  amid  the  first  excitement  of  the 
revolutionary  struggle.     In  17 75,  after  a  struggle  of 

5 


CO  THE    CHURCH    IN   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

twenty-seven  years  against  the  Established  Church  of 
Virginia,  they  presented  to  the  House  of  Assembly  of 
Virginia  a  petition  "  that  they  might  be  allowed  to 
worship  God  in  their  own  way,  without  interruption; 
to  maintain  their  own  ministers,  separate  from  others; 
and  to  be  married,  buried,  etc.,  without  paying  the 
clergy  of  other  denominations."  At  the  first  meeting 
of  the  Presbytery  of  Hanover,  Virginia,  after  the  com- 
mencement of  the  war,  that  body  presented  a  lengthy 
and  able  petition  for  religious  liberty  In  their  move- 
ment they  had  the  co-operation  of  the  Quakers.  In 
1777  and  1778  the  contest  between  the  friends  and 
enemies  of  the  Establishment  became  still  fiercer,  and, 
against  the  proposal  to  enjoin  a  general  assessment  for 
the  support  of  all  denominations — which  seemed  very 
likely  to  be  adopted — the  Presbytery  of  Hanover  pre- 
sented a  remonstrance,  in  which  we  find  this  strong 
language :  "  As  it  is  contrary  to  our  principles  and 
interest,  and,  as  we  think,  subversive  of  religious  lib- 
erty, we  do  again  most  earnestly  entreat  that  our  Leg- 
islature would  never  extend  any  assessment  for  relig- 
ious purposes  to  us,  or  to  the  congregations  under  our 
care."  The  proposed  assessment  was  abandoned. 

3.  Thomas  Jefferson,  who  in  matters  religious  was  to  all 
intents  and  purposes  a  Frenchman,  introduced  an  act  into 
the  Legislature  of  Virginia  in  1785  "for  establishing  re- 
ligious freedom."  This  was  adopted,  and  perfect  relig- 
ious liberty  was  now  brought  to  pass  in  the  oldest  of  the 
colonies.  Maryland  followed  Virginia.  Other  states 
adopted  similar  measures.  In  New  England  there  was 
more  caution  in  making  the  Church  separate  from  the 
State.  The  last  state  to  make  the  Church  independent 
of  the  civil  government  was  Massachusetts,  the  separa- 
tion taking  place  in  1833. 


CHAPTER  III. 

REVIVAL    AT   THE    BEGINNING    OF   THE    CENTURY. 

1.  The  Revival  of  1797-1803   had   several  important 
centres   of  operation.     The   movement  began   almost 
simultaneously  in  widely  separated   regions,  and  ex- 
tended until  the  intervening  spaces  were  covered  by 
its  effects.     In   Connecticut  the  spiritual  outpouring 
was  very  extensive,  and  from  there  it  extended  through- 
out New  England.     From  1797  to  1803  not  less  than 
one  hundred  and  fifty  churches  in  New  England  were 
powerfully  quickened,  and  large  numbers  were  added. 
In  Kentucky  and  Tennessee  there  was  the  same  great 
spiritual  demonstration.     Here  was  a  strong  population 
of  the  Scotch-Irish  element.     But  these  people  were 
surrounded  by  many  who  made  no  profession  of  re- 
ligion, by  others   who  were   outspoken   sceptics,  and 
others  who  were  given  up  to  gross  immorality.     Craig- 
head,  Gready,  Hoge,  Burke,  and  the  McGees  were  lead- 
ers in  the  movement.     People  assembled  on  week  days 
for  worship  in  the  open  air.     All  denominations  united 
in  work.     Multitudes  were  awakened  and  converted. 
From  this  revival  the  Western  Church  received  an  im- 
pulse which  has  continued  down  to  the  present  time. 

2.  The  Colleges  shared  largely  in  this  revival.     Yale 
had  only  about  a  dozen  students  who  professed  religion. 
But  there  was  such  a  powerful  awakening  that  seventy- 
five  students  became  Christians,  and  united  with  the 
Church.     In  Dartmouth  and  Williams  colleges  there 


68  THE   CHURCH    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

were  similar  awakenings,  and  large  accessions  of  stu- 
dents to  the  churches.  Many  of  the  young  men  who 
were  converted  afterwards  entered  the  ministry.  Of 
the  seventy-five  in  Yale  College  who  joined  the  church, 
about  one  half  became  ministers. 

3.  A  Great  Impulse  towards  Evangelization  was  im- 
parted by  this  revival.     The  Western  population  had 
been  reached  as  never  before,  and  the  Kentucky  and 
Tennessee  region  was  made  the  starting-point  for  mis- 
sionary work  farther  west.     About  this  time  the  entire 
American  Church  first  saw  its  great  opportunity  on  the 
frontier.     Young  men  from  the  Eastern  colleges  were 
enthusiastic  in  their  desire  to  travel  into  all  parts  of 
the  West,  found  churches  and  schools,  and  distribute 
the   Bible    and    religious   books.      There  was  a  new 
faith    in    evangelistic   influence.      The   old   prejudice 
against  Whitefield  and  his  methods  had  long  since 
passed  away,  and  there  was  a  new  and  general  belief 
in  the  reality  and  power  of  special  spiritual  manifes- 
tation. 

4.  Other  Advantages  to  the  Church  grew  out  of  that 
wonderful  work  of  grace.      Besides  the  large  acces- 
sions in  membership  and  the  great  increase  in  minis- 
terial candidates,  an  impulse  was  given  to  the  produc- 
tion and  circulation  of  religious  literature.     Missions 
for  the  neglected  population  at  home,  especially  among 
the  Indians,  were  revived  or  organized  anew.      The 
founding  of  Sunday  -  schools,  tract  organizations,  and 
the  American  Bible  Society  sprang  out  of  the  warm 
inspiration  of  this  great  spiritual  ingathering. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

EXPANSION    IN    THK    SOUTH    AND    WEST. 

1.  The  Roman  Catholic  Pre-occupatiou  in  the  West 
and  South  gave  abundant  promise  of  a  permanent  pop- 
ulation of  adherents  to  that  communion.     From  the 
head-waters  of  the  Mississippi  down  to  the  Gulf,  and 
along  the  tributary  rivers,  there  had  been  settlements 
of  the  Jesuits,  which  preserved  the  Roman  Catholic 
spirit  after  the  most  of  the  missions  had  been  broken 
up.     The  Louisiana  Purchase  from  Napoleon  Buona- 
parte, in  1803,  designed  to  replenish  his  exchequer  for 
carrying  on  his  war  with  Spain,  brought  into  the  Union 
the  states  of  Louisiana,  Mississippi,  Alabama,  Arkan- 
sas, and  Missouri.     The  population  was  in  large  part 
French,  with   a  Spanish  admixture,  and  the  Roman 
Catholic  faith  predominated  everywhere.    Florida  came 
into  the  Union,  by  cession  from  Spain  in  1819.     Here, 
too,   the   pre-occupation   had   been  Roman   Catholic. 
There  was   a   universal   dearth   of   Protestant  popu- 
lation and  spirit.     The  first  Protestant  society  in  St. 
Louis,  for  example,  was  organized  as  late  as  1818.    The 
vices  of  the  Continent,  such  as  Sabbath  desecration, 
prevailed  exclusively  in  this  new  territory. 

2.  The  Protestant  Current  Westward  did  not  take 
the  shape  of  a  religious  movement.     It  was  simply  the 
expansion  of  the  solid  and  permanent  population  east 
of  the  Alleghanies.    Many  of  the  settlers  went  as  small 
groups,  and  some  of  them  as  individual  adventurers. 


70  THE    CHURCH    IX    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

They  built  huts,  made  a  clearing,  and  in  due  time 
were  joined  by  others.  The  population  was  Protestant, 
and  partook  of  the  national  American  feeling.  Log 
churches  were  built,  with  such  ministerial  supply  as 
the  scanty  means  afforded.  Many  settlers  went  from 
Virginia  and  North  Carolina  into  Tennessee  and  Ken- 
tucky. In  time  this  emigration  extended  across  the 
Mississippi  into  Arkansas  and  Missouri.  There  were 
large  bodies,  such  as  the  land  companies  of  the  latter 
half  of  the  last  century.  Among  these  were  the  Ohio 
Company,  the  Transylvania  Company,  and  the  Missis- 
sippi Company.  The  Western  Reserve,  in  the  northern 
part  of  Ohio,  was  filled  by  families  from  New  England. 
The  churches  in  the  East,  and  especially  the  Home  Mis- 
sionary societies,  sent  out  ministerial  agents  to  travel 
through  the  new  regions,  and  especially  the  valley  of  the 
Mississippi,  who  brought  home  reports  of  the  spiritual 
destitution,  and  made  successful  appeals  for  its  relief. 
3.  The  Denominations  taking  the  lead  in  the  great  work 
of  Western  and  Southern  evangelization  were  the  Bap- 
tists, Presbyterians,  and  Methodists.  The  Presbyterians 
entered  Mississippi  about  1800,  and  Indiana  about  1805. 
The  Baptists  organized  work  in  Illinois  in  1796,  in 
Missouri  about  the  same  time,  in  Indiana  in  1802, 
and  in  Arkansas  about  1818.  The  Methodists  entered 
Indiana  in  1802,  and  Arkansas  in  1815.  The  Baptists 
and  Methodists  began  in  Wisconsin  in  1836.  Down  to 
1805  there  were  no  settlements  of  native  Americans 
in  New  Orleans.  As  late  as  1801  there  were  no  Chris- 
tian people  in  the  old  town  of  Detroit,  "  except  a  black 
man  who  appeared  pious."  In  due  time  all  the  larger 
religious  bodies  of  the  East  sent  ministers  into  Michi- 
gan and  other  northwestern  regions.  The  Congrega- 
tionalists  were  among  the  first  to  expose  the  spiritual 


EXPANSION    IX    THE    SOUTH    AND    WEST.  71 

destitution  of  the  great  West,  and  have  been  among 
the  most  heroic  in  relieving  it.  The  Protestant  Episco- 
pal Church,  being  strong  in  Virginia  and  other  southern 
states,  extended  itself  in  the  Southwest.  The  Metho- 
dists were  early  in  Texas.  Their  itinerants,  however, 
went  over  all  the  new  region,  and  organized  their  infant 
societies  as  a  part  of  the  general  ecclesiastical  system. 
No  denomination  can  claim  the  chief  honor  of  this  won- 
derful evangelization  in  the  South  and  West.  The  great 
religious  currents  moved  along  the  parallels  of  latitude 
westward  with  a  steadiness  and  persistency  which  be- 
long to  the  rarer  spiritual- phenomena  of  modern  times. 
4.  The  Moral  Significance  of  the  Western  and  South- 
ern occupation  by  the  Protestants  of  the  United  States 
is  great.  We  are  too  near  the  scene,  and  the  time  is  too 
recent,  to  comprehend  the  vastness  of  the  achievement. 
Centuries  must  elapse  before  the  transformation  can  be 
seen  in  all  its  meaning.  The  western  and  southern  parts 
of  the  field  of  the  American  Church  are  now  sources  of 
supply  for  the  East.  Let  the  harvests  of  the  Missis- 
sippi valley  fail  one  season,  and  there  is  not  a  church 
treasury  in  the  land  which  is  not  seriously  distiirbed 
by  it.  The  churches  in  the  West  which  needed  help 
thirty  years  ago  have  already  pushed  out  their  forces 
to  the  Pacific,  and  have  helped  to  develop  the  coast 
from  Washington  down  to  San  Diego.  The  national 
life  has  been  saved  by  the  West.  Without  the  West- 
ern legions  which  followed  the  United  States  flag  in 
the  Civil  War,  with  the  devotion  of  Crusaders,  the 
Union  would  to-day  be  only  a  memory.  Our  religious 
literature,  the  pulpit,  our  denominational  treasuries, 
have  all  been  enriched  beyond  calculation  by  the  con- 
tributions which  the  West  has  made  with  liberal  hand 
and  sublime  faith. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE    LARGER   AND    EARLIER    DENOMINATIONS. 

1.  The  Protestant  Episcopal  Church. — The  founding 
of  the  Virginia  Colony  at  Jamestown  was  the  first 
act  towards  the  establishment  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land in  America.  Special  attention  was  given  to  the 
church  services  and  the  support  of  the  clergy.  In 
1619  the  colony  was  divided  into  seven  parishes.  In 
1785  the  first  General  Convention  of  the  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church  of  the  United  States  was  held  in 
Philadelphia.  Seven  states  were  represented.  The 
Prayer  Book  ordered  by  the  convention  was  published 
in  the  following  year.  It  showed  traces  throughout 
of  the  liberal  spirit  of  the  new  Republic.  The  omis- 
sions from  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  already  in  use 
were  remarkable.  Among  them  were  the  Nicene  and 
Athanasian  creeds;  the  descent  into  hell,  of  the  creed; 
absolution  ;  and  baptismal  regeneration.  The  bishops 
were  made  amenable  to  the  lower  clergy.  The  Prayer 
Book  received  no  favor  in  England.  The  bishops 
were  so  opposed  to  it  that  some  of  the  more  import- 
ant omissions  were  restored.  But  absolution  in  visi- 
tation of  the  sick  and  the  Athanasian  Creed  were  not 
restored.  The  Parliament,  by  a  special  act,  ordered 
the  ordination  to  the  episcopacy  of  William  White, 
Samuel  Provost,  and  Dr.  Griffith,  in  1 787.  The  Thirty- 
nine  Articles  were  ratified  in  1832.  The  Protestant 


THE  LARGER  AND  EARLIER  DENOMINATIONS.    73 

Episcopal  Church  has  been  distinguished  for  its  edu- 
cated clergy,  its  steady  growth,  and  liberality. 

2.  The  Congregationalists  are  the  direct  descendants 
of  the  Pilgrims.     The  Plymouth  Colony,  colonists  who 
came  over  in  the  3f<n/flowcr,  and  landed  at  Plymouth  in 
1620,  established  Puritan  principles.     This  colony  was 
rapidly  reinforced  by  the  arrival  of  others.     A  colony 
landed  at  Salem  in  1629,  and  another  in  Charlestown 
in  1635.     The  Cambridge  Platform,  which  contained 
the  doctrinal  basis  for  American  Congregationalism, 
was  adopted  in  1648.     The  first  teachers,  as  well  as 
the  first  preachers  to  the  New  England  colonists,  had 
been  educated  in  the  Cambridge  University.    The  courso 
of  study  in  Harvard  was  largely  theological.     The  first 
object  was  to  educate  preachers  of  the  gospel,  and  a 
general  literary  education  was  subsidiary.     The  first 
generation   of    Congregational   ministers   was    distin- 
guished for  its  learning.     John  Cotton,  Increase  Ma- 
ther, and  Cotton  Mather  gave  tone  to  the  whole  body 
of  New  England  clergy.     The  literary  fertility  of  the 
times  was  remarkable.     Besides,  the  Congregational 
clergy  were   distinguished   for  their  wise  and  brave 
leadership  in  all  national  and  social  questions.     This 
field  they  have  never  left.     They  have  been  among 
the  strongest  and  earliest  champions  for  the  freedom 
of  the  slaves.    They  are  equally  distinguished  for  their 
literary  and  theological  productions,  for  the  part  they 
have  taken  in  educating  the  freedmen,  and  for  organiz- 
ing churches  and  founding  institutions  of  learning  in 
the  newer  portions  of  the  West. 

3.  The  Reformed  Church  was  established  by  the  Dutch 
colony  on  Manhattan  Island,  in  1623.     The  first  regu- 
lar preaching  was  by  Machselius,  who   arrived  from 
Holland  in  1628.     A  close  connection  with  the  Church 


74  THE    CHUKCH    IN  THE    UNITED    STATES. 

in  Holland  was  retained  during  the  colonial  period. 
The  Dutch  language  was  long  preserved  in  the  churches, 
and  the  clergy  were  brought  over  from  the  mother 
country  for  the  prominent  pulpits  in  New  York,  Al- 
bany, and  other  places.  It  was  not  until  1771  that  an 
independent  organization  of  the  Church  was  effected. 
This  was  brought  about  chiefly  through  the  agency  of 
the  Rev.  Dr.  J.  H.  Livingston.  In  1822  a  secession 
took  place,  under  the  name  of  the  "True  Reformed 
Dutch  Church."  The  alleged  ground  was  a  departure 
in  doctrine  and  discipline  from  the  original  purity  of 
the  Church.  The  theology  of  the  Reformed  Church 
is  Calvinistic,  and  is  based  on  the  Confession  of  Dort 
and  the  Heidelberg  Catechism.  The  clergy  have  al- 
ways been  distinguished  for  their  learning  and  popular 
ability,  while  the  membership  have  been  characterized 
by  rare  intelligence  and  purity  of  life. 

4.  The  Baptists. — Roger  Williams,  after  being  ex- 
pelled by  the  Pilgrims,  founded  the  Baptist  Church  in 
America,  in  1639.  He  organized  the  colony  of  Rhode 
Island,  which  became  a  refuge  for  people  of  various  dis- 
senting creeds.  Providence  was  the  chief  town.  Bap- 
tists settled  along  the  eastern  shore  of  Maryland  and 
in  Virginia,  but  in  the  latter  colony  they  were  severely 
persecuted.  Rhode  Island,  Pennsylvania,  and  Dela- 
ware were  the  only  states  where  they  enjoyed  relig- 
ious liberty.  When  the  national  independence  was 
achieved,  the  Baptists  grew  rapidly  in  strength  and 
numbers.  Their  later  history  has  been  a  steady  prog- 
ress. They  are  distinguished  for  zeal  and  culture. 
Among  the  smaller  Baptist  sects  are  the  Anti-mission, 
the  Free,  the  Seventh-Day,  the  Church  of  God,  or 
Winnebrennarians,  the  Disciples  of  Christ,  or  Camp- 
bellites,  the  Tunkers,  and  the  Mennonites. 


THE    LARGER    AND    EARLIER    DENOMINATIONS.         75 

5.  The  German  Reformed  Church  arose  in  connection 
with  the  Reformed  (Dutch)  Church.     It  was  organized 
in   1741,  and  was   Calvinistic.     The  connection  with 
the  Reformed  continued  until  1792,  when  it  became  a 
separate  organization.    Its  original  members  were  Ger- 
mans, who  came  from  Switzerland  and  the  Palatinate, 
and  were  attached  to  the  Helvetic  Confession  and  Hei- 
delberg  Catechism.     The  territory  where  it  is  most 
strongly  established  is  Eastern  Pennsylvania.    Its  cler- 
gy have  been  carefully  educated,  and  its  authors  have 
taken  an  honorable  place  in  American  theology. 

6.  The  Lutheran  Church.— There  were  three  Lutheran 
currents  in  the  colonies.     First,  the  New  York  current; 
second,  the  Swedish  current  along  the  Delaware  ;  and, 
third,  the  German  current  of  Pennsylvania.     The  Ger- 
mans were  early  settlers  in  New  York,  and  they  estab- 
lished the  Lutheran  Church  shortly  after  their  arrival. 
Their  first  pastor  was  the  Rev.  Jacob  Fabricius  (1669), 
and  they  built  their  first  church,  a  log  hut,  in   167). 
Their  next  settlement  was  on  the  Delaware,  in  1676. 
The  Rev.  H.  M.  Muhlenberg,  who  arrived  from  Ger- 
many in   1742,  became    the   leader  of   the   Lutheran 
Church  in  the  United  States.     The  first  Synod  was 
held  in  1748. 

7.  Pennsylvania  and  Ohio  are  the  two  states  where 
the  Lutherans  have  been  strongest,  but  their  Church 
is  growing  rapidly  in  Illinois,  Wisconsin,  Missouri,  and 
other  states  where  there  is  a  large  German  immigra- 
tion.    Three  Lutheran    schools  exist :    The    strict,  or 
old  Lutherans,  who  adhere  to  the  theology  of  the  Lu- 
theran fathers  ;  the  moderate  Lutherans  of  the  Penn- 
sylvania Synod,  who  have  undergone  variations  from 
the  original  theology  of  the  Lutherans  of  Germany  ; 
and  the  Evangelical  Lutherans,  who  are  strictly  or- 


76  THE    CHURCH    IX    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

thodox,  and  derive  their  theology  from  Gettysburg. 
The  chief  variation  of  the  American  Lutherans  from 
their  brethren  in  Germany  is  in  the  American  op- 
position to  consubstantiation  and  private  confession. 

8.  The  Presbyterian  Church  took  its  origin  from  per- 
sons of  Presbyterian  faith  who  came  to  the  colonies 
from  Scotland  and  the  north  of  Ireland  in  the  latter 
part  of  the  seventeenth  century.     From  1660  to  1685 
three  thousand  emigrants  arrived  in  America,  as  fugi- 
tives from  persecution,  the  most  of  them  settling  in 
Pennsylvania.     Some  of  them  settled  on  the  eastern 
shore  of  Maryland.    Here,  near  the  village  of  Salisbury, 
Maryland,  the  first  Presbyterian  church  in  America  was 
built.    No  toleration  was  allowed  the  Presbyterians  in 
New  England.     The  Scotch-Irish  element,  which  has 
become  renowned  in  the  ecclesiastical  history  of  the 
United  States,  has  contributed  such  families  as  the 
Alexanders,  the  Duflields,  the  Hodges,  and  the  Brcck- 
enridges  to  the  American  Church.     The  Philadelphia 
Presbytery  was  formed  in   1706,  and  the  first  General 
Assembly  was  held  in  1789.     In  1838  the  Presbyte- 
rian Church  was  divided  into  the  New  and  the  Old 
Schools.     In  1870  the  two  Schools  united.     No  Ameri- 
can Church  has  surpassed  the  Presbyterian  in  the  cult- 
ure of  its  members,  the  abilities  of  the  clergy,  in  devo- 
tion to  education,  in  zeal  for  missions,  in  munificence, 
and  in  devotion  to  its  theology. 

9.  The  Moravian  Church  in  America  arose  from  the 
personal  visit  of   Count  Zinzendorf  in  the  year  1741. 
Ills  first  attention  was  directed  to  the  conversion  of 
the  Indians  in  Pennsylvania.     A  district  west  of  the 
Delaware  became  the  centre  of  the  work  of  the  Mora- 
vians.    The  towns  of   Bethlehem  and  Nazareth  were 
settled  by  them.     They  had  a  flourishing  congregation 


THE    LARGER    AND    EARLIER    DENOMINATIONS.         77 

in  Philadelphia,  and  others  in  other  parts  of  the  coun- 
try, notably  at  Salem,  North  Carolina.  The  early 
character  of  the  Moravians  for  missionary  zeal  and 
excellent  schools  has  been  well  sustained. 

10.  The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  was  established 
in  New  York  in  1776.  The  first  society  was  organ- 
ized by  Barbara  Heck,  Philip  Embury,  and  Captain 
"Webb.  Richard  Boardman  and  Joseph  Pilmore  were 
sent  out  by  John  Wesley  in  1769,  and  Francis  As- 
bury  and  Richard  Wright  arrived  two  years  later. 
The  first  Conference  was  held  in  Philadelphia  in  1773, 
when  the  Church  consisted  of  ten  preachers  and  one 
thousand  one  hundred  and  sixty  members.  During 
the  Revolutionary  War  the  Methodists  made  no  ma- 
terial progress,  and  Asbury,  suspected  of  being  a  Tory, 
was  compelled  to  live  in  concealment.  The  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  divided  in  1844  on  the  question  of 
slavery,  the  new  Church  taking  the  name  of  the  Metho- 
dist Episcopal  Church,  South.  In  1866,  the  centen- 
nial celebration  was  held  throughout  the  Church  at 
home  and  in  the  mission  fields.  Contributions,  chiefly 
for  education,  were  made,  amounting  to  about  eight 
millions  of  dollars.  An  (Ecumenical  Methodist  Coun- 
cil was  held  in  London  in  1881,  where  delegates  were 
present  from  nearly  all  the  branches  of  the  Methodist 
family. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE    SMALLER    EVANGELICAL    BODIES. 

1.  The  Multiplication  of  Ecclesiastical  Organizations 
has  been  one  of  the  characteristics  of  American  religious 
life.     The  many  sects  in  the  United  States  have  arisen 
largely  from  the  cosmopolitan  character  of  the  immi- 
grant population.     The  various  Protestant  countries  of 
Europe  which  sent  their  colonists  here  were  themselves 
divided  in  their  Protestant  attachments.     It  is  not  sur- 
prising, for  example,  that  there  should  be  both  Luther- 
ans and  Reformed  here — for  the  German  Protestants 
were  divided  into  these  two  great  classes.     The  seeds 
of  all  the  larger  and  of  nearly  all  the  smaller  bodies  in 
this  country  are  to  be  found  either  in  well-defined  form 
in  the  Old  World,  or  in  the  theology  which  the  colonists 
and  their  successors  brought  with  them. 

2.  The  Presbyterian  Subdivisions  are  numerous.    The 
Associate   Church   arose   from   a   secession  from   the 
Church  of  Scotland  in  1733.      The  seceders  founded 
an  Associate  Presbytery,  which  became  an  important 
body  in  Scotland.     In  less  than  twenty  years  after  the 
secession  a  number  of  Scotch  Presbyterians  in  Penn- 
sylvania  sent   over   to   the  Associate  Presbytery  for 
ministers,  who  came  and  organized  the  new  American 
Associate  Church.     By  1801  they  had  four  presbyte- 
ries.    The  Associate  Reformed  Church  was  organized 
in  1782,  and  the  Reformed  Presbyterian  Church  in  1 798. 
All  three  of  these  churches  have  adopted  the  Calvin- 


THE    SMALLER    EVANGELICAL    BODIES.  79 

istic  theology.  The  Cumberland  Presbyterians  arose 
from  the  great  revival  of  1800  in  the  Cumberland 
Mountains  of  Kentucky  and  Tennessee,  chiefly  through 
the  labors  of  the  Rev.  James  McGrady.  Several  young 
men  offered  themselves  for  the  ministry  ;  but  the  Pres- 
byterian Synod  of  Kentucky  refused  them  ordination, 
on  the  ground  of  their  opposition  to  the  doctrine  of 
election  in  the  Westminster  Confession.  The  result 
was  a  secession,  and  the  formation  in  1810  of  the  Cum- 
berland Presbyterian  Church. 

3.  The  Baptists  have  also  their  Subdivisions.  —  The 
Seventh-Day  Baptists  have  churches  in  many  parts  of  the 
country,  chiefly  in  New  York,  Rhode  Island,  Ohio,  Vir- 
ginia, and  some  of  the  Western  States.     The  Disciples 
of  Christ,  or  Campbellites,  arose  from  the  labors  of 
Dr.  Alexander  Campbell,  about  the  year  1812.     Their 
chief  numerical  strength  is  to  be  found  in  Northern 
Ohio  and  several  of  the  Western  States.      The  Free 
(Will)  Baptists  originated  in  New  Hampshire  in  1780, 
chiefly  through  the  labors  of  Benjamin  Randall.    Their 
principal  strength  is  in  Maine  and  other  New  England 
States.     The  Quakers  and  Mennonites  are  Baptists  in 
theology,  and  are  descendants  of  German  and  Dutch 
immigrants  to  Pennsylvania.     There  are  other  Baptist 
subdivisions,  such   as    the  Anti-mission   Baptists,   the 
General  Baptists,  and  the  Church  of  God  (Winnebren- 
narians). 

4.  The  Smaller  Methodist  Churches  are  not  less  nu- 
merous than  those  of  the  Baptists  and  Presbyterians. 
The  Methodist  Protestant  Church  is  a  secession  from 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,   on  the   ground  of 
objection  to  Episcopacy.     It  took  organic  shape  about 
1828.     The  United  Brethren  in  Christ  were  organized 
about  1789.      Their  founders  were  from  the  German 


80  THE    CHURCH    FN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

Reformed,  the  Lutherans,  and  the  Mennonites.  The 
Evangelical  Association,  arising  through  the  labors  of 
the  Rev.  Jacob  Albright,  was  organized  about  1800.  The 
African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  was  formally  estab- 
lished in  1816.  The  African  Methodist  Episcopal  Zion 
Church  is  of  later  origin.  Both  these  churches  have 
their  chief  constituency  in  the  Southern  States,  among 
the  colored  people.  The  larger  Methodist  churches  of 
Canada  have  united,  and  bear  the  general  name  of  the 
Methodist  Church  of  Canada. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE     QUAKERS. 

The  Friends,  or  Quakers,  arose  as  a  religious  body  in 
England  about  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century. 
Their  founder  was  George  Fox.  He  visited  the  Ameri- 
can colonies,  and  established  societies  in  many  places. 
He  and  his  followers  avoided  controversy,  and  quietly 
pursued  their  course.  The  laws  of  all  the  colonies  ex- 
cept Pennsylvania  and  Maryland  were  adverse  to  them. 
But,  driven  from  one  place,  they  went  quietly  to  an- 
other, without  murmuring.  One  of  their  early  advocates 
in  this  country  was  George  Keith.  He  afterwards  left 
the  Quakers,  and  united  with  the  Church  of  England. 
The  first  colony  of  Quakers  was  founded  in  America 
about  1661  ;  but  others  followed  in  quick  succession. 
A  powerful  impulse  was  given  to  this  new  sect  by  the 
example  of  William  Penn,  who  was  the  son  of  an 
English  admiral.  Penn  was  pure  and  wise,  and  of  re- 
markable strength  of  character.  His  sense  of  justice 
was  worthy  of  any  Christian  age. 
6 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE  ROMAN  CATHOLIC  CHURCH. 

1.  The  First  Great  Opportunity  of  Roman  Catholi- 
cism in  the  United  States  was  the  colonial  missions 
of  the  French  and  Spanish  along  the  St.  Lawrence  and 
the  Lakes,  the  Mississippi  valley,  Florida,  and  the  Pa- 
cific coast.     The  Canadian  Romanism  is  the  best  of  all 
these  types.     The  missions  of  the  Mississippi  valley 
failed,  and  Protestants  began  on  a  soil  fully  ready  for 
them  by  virtue  of  the  failure  of  their  Roman  Catholic 
predecessors.     The  Pacific  coast  had  its  chain  of  mis- 
sions, which  have  also  failed. 

2.  The  Second  Great  Opportunity  of  Roman  Cathol- 
icism in  this  country  has  been  successful,  namely,  the 
cultivation  of  the  vast  Roman  Catholic  immigration 
from  Ireland  and  other  Catholic  countries.    In  1790,  out 
of  the  3,200,000  of  the  country,  only  30,000  were  Ro- 
man Catholics.     There  were  but  26  priests.     In  New 
York  there  were  but   100  Roman   Catholics,  and  of 
them  only  40  were  communicants.     There  was  but  one 
church,  St.  Peter's,  on  Barclay  Street.     There  were  but 
40  Roman  Catholics  in  Boston,  and  no  church  until  1803. 
The  Roman  Catholic  population  to-day  is  about  12,000,- 
000.      In  1790  the  population  was  two  out  of  every 
220  of  the  population  ;  now  it  is  two  out  of  every  11. 
There  was  not  one  school  in  1790 ;  now  they  are  num- 
bered by  the  thousand.     Instead  of  one  bishop — the 
estimable  Carroll — with  his  30  priests,  in  1790,  there 


THE    ROMAN    CATHOLIC    CHURCH.  83 

are  13  archbishops,  75  bishops,  8000  priests,  2000 
theological  students,  7000  churches,  and  3000  chapels 
and  stations.  With  all  this  great  increase  there  has 
been  an  immense  loss  of  Roman  Catholic  population. 
Had  the  Irish  immigrants  and  their  immediate  de- 
scendants remained  Catholics,  there  would  now  be  15,- 
000,000  Irish  Catholics  in  the  United  States.  But  the 
fact  is  there  are  but  7,000,000 — a  loss  of  over  one  half. 
There  is  a  shrinkage  of  2,000,000  in  the  Catholic  im- 
migration from  Germany,  Italy,  and  other  countries. 

3.  The  Ecclesiastical  Organization  began  in  1789,  with 
the  consecration  and  appointment  of  the  Rev.  John 
Carroll  as  Bishop  of  the  United   States.     He  was  a 
native  of  Maryland,  a  devoted  patriot,  a  man  univer- 
sally respected,  and  in  every  way  adapted  to  lay  the 
new  foundations  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  in  the 
United  States.     He  saw  the  scanty  supply  of  priests, 
and  labored  for  their  multiplication  ;  he  gave  an  im- 
pulse to  the  erection  of  churches  ;  he  developed  the 
growth  of  religious  orders  and  communities  ;  he  sought 
to  reproduce  here  the  European  care  of  the  sick  and 
the  poor.    The  spirit  which  Carroll  infused,  the  strength 
of  his  character,  and  his  amazing  foresight  have  entered 
into  the  whole  subsequent  history  of  Romanism  in  the 
United  States.     The  other  two  great  Roman  Catholic 
bishops,  who,  each  in  his  day,  was  the  leader  of  his 
faith  in  this  country  —  England  (1820)  and  Hughes 
(1838) — have  only  followed  in  the  footsteps  of  the 
great  Carroll.     The  Jesuits  have  made  the  whole  Uni- 
ted States  one  vast  mission  field.      They  derive  their 
authority  directly  from  Rome. 

4.  The  Educational  System  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church  has  been  compelled  to  undergo  in  the  New 
World  a  modification  entirely  new  in  its  history.    The 


84  THE    CHURCH    IX    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

laws  of  the  states  favored  public  schools.  The  Roman 
Catholics  were  compelled  to  send  their  children  to  the 
public  schools,  or  provide  schools  at  their  own  expense. 
In  New  York  the  effort  was  made  to  have  their  own 
schools,  and  to  have  an  appropriation  of  the  public 
school  funds.  The  first  formal  effort  was  made  by 
Bishop  Hughes  in  1840.  This  failed,  but  the  Public 
School  Society  agreed  to  eliminate  from  the  text-books 
such  passages  as  are  objectionable  to  the  Roman  Cath- 
olics, and  to  have  read  in  the  schools  only  such  passages 
of  the  Scriptures  as  are  translated  in  the  same  way  in 
both  the  Protestant  and  Roman  Catholic  versions.  In 
1853  the  Public  School  Society  of  New  York  ceased  to 
exist,  nnd  the  Board  of  Education  was  established  in- 
stead. There  had  been  no  division  of  the  school  fund. 
Parochial  schools,  in  antagonism  to  the  public  schools, 
were  organized  in  New  York  and  other  parts  of  the 
country,  and  the  demand  was  made  that  the  public 
school  fund  should  be  divided  in  their  favor.  In  1853 
this  demand  was  made  in  eight  states  of  the  Union ; 
but  in  no  case  was  it  granted.  At  present  there  are 
about  2697  parochial  schools  attended  by  537,725  chil- 
dren, the  general  direction  being  given  to  parents  to 
withdraw  their  children  from  the  public,  schools 
throughout  the  United  States.  The  Plenary  Council 
of  1884  directed  that  Roman  Catholic  schools  should 
be  maintained  by  all  the  parishes  in  the  country,  and 
the  priests  were  directed,  under  threat  of  expulsion, 
to  found  such  schools  where  extreme  poverty  did  not 
prevent  their  support. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE    UNITARIAN    CHURCH. 

1.  The  Unitarians  arose  from  tbe  conflict  between 
the  evangelical  and  non-evangelical  parties  within  the 
Congregational  Church  of  New  England.  When  Stod- 
dard,  of  Northampton,  favored  the  admission  of  the 
unregenerate  to  Church  membership  and  the  Lord's 
Supper,  and  the  right  of  their  children  to  baptism,  the 
foundation  was  laid  for  the  large  Unitarian  defection. 
The  first  Unitarian  congregation  was  King's  Chapel, 
Boston.  It  had  been  an  Episcopal  church.  The  Rev. 
Mr.  Freeman  was  appointed  reader  in  1782.  He  in- 
troduced a  liturgy  into  his  church,  from  which  the 
doctrine  of  the  Trinity  was  omitted.  He  was  refused 
ordination  by  the  American  bishops,  but  in  1787  he 
was  ordained  by  his  church-wardens.  Freeman  was 
the  first  who  preached  Unitarianism  publicly.  The 
first  openly  Unitarian  book  was  Ballou's  work  on  "  The 
Atonement,"  published  in  1803.  The  most  notable 
case  of  open  rupture  was  the  election  of  Dr.  Ware,  in 
1804,  as  professor  in  Harvard  College,  and  the  election 
of  Kirkland  as  president  in  1812.  In  the  same  year 
the  "  Memoir  of  Lindsay,"  by  Belsham,  was  published 
in  London,  which  was  the  first  revelation  to  Americans 
of  the  steady  disintegrating  force  which  had  long  been 
operating  upon  the  body  of  New  England  evangelical 
theology.  The  Boston  Congregationalists  so  far  went 
over  to  the  Unitarian  fold  that  only  two  churches  re- 


86  THE    CHURCH    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

mained  firm  to  the  old  landmarks.  The  American 
Unitarian  Association,  which  is  the  organic  centre  of 
the  body,  was  founded  in  1825.  The  Unitarian  church- 
es are  bound  together  by  a  great  variety  of  theological 
sentiment.  There  has  never  been  any  basis  of  faith 
which  has  been  thoroughly  satisfactory.  The  theo- 
logical strength  of  Unitarianism  lies  in  its  marvellous 
power  of  objection. 

2.  William  Ellery  Channing  was  the  strongest,  most 
symmetrical,  and  most  gifted  character  produced  by 
the  American  Unitarians.     His  sermon  in  Baltimore,  in 
1819,  on  the  ordination  of  the  Rev.  Jared  Sparks,  was 
powerful  in  crystallizing  Unitarian  sentiment.     It  pro- 
duced a  number  of  replies  from  the  evangelical  clergy, 
notably  Woods  of  Andover  and  Miller  of  Princeton. 
The  greatest  strength  of  Channing  lay  in  his  capacity 
to  go  beyond  his  chosen  theological  field.     His  power 
as  a  theologian  was  moderate.    But  when  he  advocated 
temperance  and  human  liberty  he  became  a  hero  of 
whom  the  whole  country  might  well  be  proud. 

3.  The  Literary  Spirit  of  the  Unitarians  has  always 
been  very  prominent.     Harvard  College  passed  into 
their  control.     They  early  began  to  cultivate  the  liter- 
ature of  the  Continent,  and  to  introduce  its  better  pro- 
ductions into  this  country.     Their  chief  writers  have 
exerted  a   strong  influence   on  the   young  American 
mind.     Their  literary  criticism,  their  unswerving  sym- 
pathy with  the  cause  of  the  slave,  and  their  rapid  re- 
flection of  the  advanced  thought  of  Europe,  have  given 
to  their  writings  a  hearing  and  respect  well  worthy  of 
the  genius  which  produced  them. 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE    TRANSCENDENTALISTS. 

1.  Transcendentalism,  as   an   intellectual  movement, 
is  one  of  the  minor  outgrowths  of  the  Unitarian  reac- 
tion.    It  regards  knowledge  as  not  limited  to  things 
ascertained  by  the  senses,  but  going  beyond  them  and 
numbering  among  its   ascertained  things    such   ideas 
as  are  claimed  to  be  taught  by  the  intuitions.     The 
letter  of  the  Scriptures,  therefore,  is  not  sufficient  to 
satisfy  the  transcendentalist.     His  larger  book  is  the 
leaves   of  his  innate   self.     He  thinks,  and   what  he 
thinks  becomes  his  chief  guide.     The  Transcendental 
Club  of  Boston  had  its  first  meeting  in  1836,  and  from 
that  time  had  a  marked  effect  on  the  aspiring  literary 
rnind  of  New  England. 

2.  Theodore  Parker  appeared  before  the   public   in 
1837  as  a  Unitarian  pastor  in  West  Roxbury.     After 
1848  he  ceased  to  be  regarded  as  even  a  Unitarian. 
He  had  drifted  far  out  of  the  conservative  limits  of 
the  Channing  School,  and  was  an  open  assailant  of  the 
inspiration   of  the  Scriptures,  the   divinity  of  Christ, 
and,  indeed,  of  the  divine  framework  of  the  Christian 
religion.    He  had  studied  in  Germany  during  the  dom- 
ination of  German   rationalism,  and  brought  over  to 
America  the  anti-scriptural  influences  which  he  there 
absorbed.    His  violence  of  language,  his  want  of  respect 
for  the  phenomena  of  Christianity,  and  his  defence  of 
the  most  destructive  criticism  of  the  German  ration- 
alists, threw  him  out  of  the  limits  of  all  conservative 


88  THE    CIIUKCH    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

minds.  His  words  were  sword-strokes.  He  was  as  fear- 
less in  his  declarations  against  the  crime  of  slavery  as  a 
Crusader  in  his  march  against  the  Saracen.  He  had  no 
system.  His  writings  are  varied.  He  proves  but  little, 
though  he  asserts  much.  Theology,  humane  pleadings, 
literary  criticism,  are  combined  in  strange  mixture.  He 
was  a  man  of  large  heart,  of  tender  sympathies,  and  as 
he  approached  the  end,  in  Florence,  whither  he  had  gone 
for  his  health,  a  reverence  and  calmness  came  over  him 
as  a  breath  of  peace  and  gentleness  from  the  Crucified. 
3.  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson  stands  easily  at  the  head 
of  the  transcendental  column.  He  had  drunk  in  the 
old  New  England  theology  from  ancestral  days.  For 
eight  generations  his  family  had  been  preachers.  In 
1830  he  became  pastor  of  the  Second  Church  in  Bos- 
ton. But  in  1831  he  ceased  his  pastoral  care,  and 
henceforth  became  a  writer  and  a  lecturer.  He  lived 
without  a  theological  system,  and  died  without  a  fol- 
lowing. With  a  warm  poetic  sympathy,  with  a  tender 
regard  for  the  slave  and  all  in  need,  and  with  a  gentle- 
ness of  spirit  worthy  of  Epictetus,  he  passed  through 
a  long  career  of  authorship  and  observation.  All  men 
were  his  friends,  because  he  was  the  friend  of  all.  His 
literary  method  explains  his  want  of  coherence.  He 
put  his  thoughts,  as  they  came  to  him,  in  scrap-books. 
His  writings  present  all  the  characteristics  of  disjunc- 
tion. His  theology  and  philosophy  lay  in  his  supreme 
faith  in  the  majesty  of  the  intuitions.  To  the  written 
word  of  Scripture  he  gave  but  little  weight.  He  was 
Carlyle's  great  American  admirer  and  interpreter,  but 
without  Carlyle's  orthodox  quality.  He  is  a  man  to 
admire,  because  of  his  noble  qualities  of  heart  and  the 
brightness  of  his  genius.  His  placid  personal  life  is 
a  beautiful  picture.  One  cannot  contemplate  it  with- 
out admiring  it. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

UNIVEESALISTS    AXD    OTHER    SMALLER    BODIES. 

1.  The  Universalists  hold  the  doctrine  of  universal 
salvation.    They  first  appeared  in  New  England,  about 
the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century.    The  most  prom- 
inent apostle  of  the  doctrine  was  the  Rev.  John  Mur- 
ray, who  came  to  this  country  from  England  in  1770. 
The  Rev.  E.  Winchester  united  with  them.    A  third  ad- 
vocate, the  Rev.  Hosea  Ballou,  gave  increased  strength 
to  the  movement  about  1790.     The  General  Conven- 
tion of  1803  adopted  a  basis  of  faith — the  Holy  Script- 
ures as  a  revelation  of  the  divine  character  and  human 
duty  and  destiny  ;  one  God,  revealed  in  Jesus  Christ, 
by  one  Holy  Spirit,  who  will  restore  the  world  to  holi- 
ness and  happiness  ;  holiness  and  happiness  are  con- 
nected ;   believers  ought  to  practise  good  works,  for 
they  are  good  and  profitable  to  men.     There  is  variety 
of  view  as  to  the  time  when  final  happiness  of  the  un- 
righteous takes  place. 

2.  The  Swedenborgians  began  their  organization  with 
the  preaching  of  the  doctrines  of  Swedenborg,  or  The 
Church  of  the  New  Jerusalem,  in  Philadelphia,  by  the 
Rev.  James  Glen.     In  Boston,  Samuel  Worcester  was 
active    in    propagating   Swedenborgian    views,  about 
1817.    The  General  Convention  was  organized  in  1818. 
The  congregations  are  chiefly  in  New  England,  Ohio, 
and  Pennsylvania.     There  is  a  large  measure  of   in- 
dependent views  in  the  separate  congregations.     The 


90  THE    CHUBCH    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

theology  in  one  may  differ  considerably  from  that  of 
another. 

3.  The  Shakers  in  America  owe  their  origin  to  James 
Wardley,  who  had  been  a  Quaker,  but  separated  from 
that  body.     He  began  to  preach  the  extravagant  and 
superstitious  notions  which  underlie  the  Shaker  system. 
The  great  exponent  of  Shakerism  was  Ann  Lee,  who 
married  a  man  named  Standley,  and  came  to  this  country 
in  1774.     She  preached  gross  extravagances,  and  called 
herself  "Ann  the  Word."     The  Shakers  called  them- 
selves the  Millennial  Church,  and   established   them- 
selves  as  a  community   at  Watervliet,  near  Albany. 
They  believe  in  physical  contortions  as  manifestations 
of  spiritual  power  ;   that  the  millennium  has  already 
begun  ;  that  they  have  apostolic  gifts  ;  that  baptism 
and  the  Lord's  Supper  ceased  with  the  apostolic  age  ; 
and  that  the  judgment  has  already  commenced.     Of 
their  history,  they  thus  sing  : 

"Hail,  thou  victorious  gospel! 

And  that  auspicious  day, 
When  Mother  safely  landed 

In  Hudson's  lovely  bay  ; 
Near  Albany  they  settled, 

And  waited  for  a  while, 
Until  a  mighty  shaking 

Made  all  the  desert  smile." 

4.  The  Christians   are  of   threefold   origin— Metho- 
dist,   Baptist,    and    Presbyterian.      The    Rev.    James 
O'Kelley,  in  1793,  withdrew  from  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church  in  North  Carolina,  on  account  of  objec- 
tions to  the  polity  of  that  Church.     His  views  of  the 
Trinity  underwent  a  change  about  the  same  time,  and 
he   and    his   followers   called   themselves  Republican 
Methodists.     About  ten  years  later,  Dr.  Abner  Jones, 
of  Vermont,  and  the  Rev.  Elias  Smith,  of  New  Hatnp- 


UNI  VERBALISTS    AND    OTHER    SMALLER    BODIES.        91 

shire,  withdrew  from  the  Baptist  Church.  They  were 
followed  by  other  Baptists  in  New  England  and  in  other 
states,  the  basis  of  their  movement  being  an  opposi- 
tion to  all  creeds.  About  the  same  time  the  Rev.  B.  W. 
Stone,  of  Kentucky,  with  others,  withdrew  from  the 
Presbyterian  Church,  and  called  themselves  "  Chris- 
tians." These  three  movements,  being  in  the  main 
alike,  amalgamated,  and  took  the  general  name  of 
"Christians."  The  Christians  do  not  admit  the  deity 
of  the  Holy  Ghost  or  of  Christ,  at  the  same  time  calling 
Christ  "the  only-begotten  Son  of  God."  They  have 
no  general  unity  of  doctrine,  their  main  bond  being  an 
opposition  to  all  creeds.  They  have  exerted  no  gen- 
eral influence  on  the  life  of  the  country. 

5.  The  Rappists  and  Others. — In  1803  George  Rapp 
came  over  to  the  United  States  from  Germany,  bring- 
ing with  him  a  small  colony.  The  colonists  settled 
at  Economy,  near  Pittsburgh,  where  they  established 
themselves.  They  then  went  to  Indiana,  but  after- 
wards returned  to  Economy,  where  they  have  remained 
to  the  present  time.  The  Hicksite  Quakers  arose  from 
Elias  Hicks,  a  Friend,  in  1827.  They  reject  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Trinity.  The  Millerite  movement  was  un- 
der the  leadership  of  William  Miller,  who  in  1831  pro- 
claimed the  second  advent  of  Christ.  He  was  joined 
by  others,  who  held  camp -meetings  and  revival  ser- 
vices, and  published  several  journals  and  special  ap- 
peals, in  New  England  and  New  York.  They  fixed  on 
April  23,  1843,  and  other  dates,  for  the  destruction  of 
the  world,  but,  the  prophecies  failing,  the  most  of  the 
Millerites  became  discouraged,  and  drifted  into  differ- 
ent forms  of  scepticism  and  superstitition. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE   MORMON    ABOMINATION. 

1.  The  Mormon  Antecedents  are  not  admirable.    To 
Vermont  belongs  the  responsibility  of  producing  the 
two  great  Mormon  leaders,  Joseph  Smith  and  Brigham 
Young.     The  beginnings  of  the  Mormon  system  are 
so  ridiculous,  so  enveloped   in  either  superstition  or 
gross  imposture,  that  they  merit  universal  contempt. 
Joseph  Smith,  the  first  apostle,  claimed  to  be  the  au- 
thor of  the  "  Book  of  Mormon,"  published  in  Palmyra, 
New  York,  in   1830.     Sidney  Rigdon  had  become  a 
Mormon  preacher  and  joined  Smith  the  year  before. 
In  1830  the  first  church  was  organized  in  Manchester, 
New  York.     The  leaders  claimed  miraculous  powers. 
In  1831  the  whole  body  removed  to  Kirtland,  Ohio, 
where  they  established  a  colony  and  built  a  temple. 
Brigham  Young  joined  them  in  1832,  and  in  1835  be- 
came one  of  the  twelve  apostles.     The  bank  which 
they  had  founded  now  failing,  the  colony  removed  to 
Missouri,  and  then  to  Nauvoo,  Illinois,  and  finally,  in 
1845,  to  Utah. 

2.  The  Origin  of  the  Book  of  Mormon  seems  to  have 
been  a  piece  of  literary  trickery.     Solomon  Spalding, 
a  Dartmouth  graduate,  was  at  one  time  a  minister  of 
the  gospel,  but  retired  from  the  ministry,  and  removed 
to  Pittsburgh,  Pennsylvania,  in  1812.     He  died  four 
years  later.     His  tastes  were  antiquarian.     He  studied 
the  mounds  of  Eastern  Ohio,  and  conceived  the  idea  of 


THE    MORMON    ABOMINATION.  93 

writing  a  book,  claiming  to  be  the  work  of  a  mound- 
builder,  and  to  have  been  found  in  an  ancient  mound. 
He  called  his  fiction,  "Manuscript  Found,"  but  died 
before  its  publication.  In  1812  he  placed  his  manu- 
script in  a  Pittsburgh  printing-office,  with  which  Sid- 
ney Rigdon  was  connected.  This  man  copied  it,  and 
returned  the  manuscript  to  Spalding,  whose  death  oc- 
curred soon  afterwards.  This  book  was  changed  so  as 
to  admit  the  doctrine  of  the  ne\tf  sect.  In  lack  of  a 
Bible  which  favored  their  views,  the  Mormons  patched 
up  Spalding's  "Manuscript  Found"  to  such  an  extent 
that,  under  the  title  of  the  "  Book  of  Mormon,"  it  be- 
came the  basis  of  their  creed  and  the  fountain  of  their 
abominations.  In  all  literary  history  no  greater  train 
of  social  corruption  has  ever  followed  a  piece  of  liter- 
ary imposture.  It  has  been  translated  into  many  mod- 
ern languages,  and  is  made  the  book  of  final  appeal  by 
all  Mormons. 

&  The  Growth  of  the  Mormon  Body  is  largely  due  to 
the  great  immigration  of  its  dupes  from  England, 
I  Scandinavia,  and  other  parts  of  Europe.  In  1837  Orson 
Hyde  and  H.  C.  Kimball  went  to  England  as  mission- 
aries, and  succeeded  in  persuading  a  number  to  come 
to  this  country  and  unite  their  fortunes  with  the  Mor- 
mons. Missionaries  have  been  going  to  Europe  ever 
since,  and  have  induced  many  to  come  to  America  and 
become  Mormons.  In  their  missionary  appeals  to  the 
European  peasantry  they  hold  out  the  inducement  of  a 
home  and  property.  To  unsuspecting  and  uneducated 
persons,  who  have  long  been  looking  to  America  as 
their  home,  and  have  been  kept  at  home  for  the  want 
of  passage  money,  the  offer  to  pay  all  expenses  to  Utah 
has  been  too  flattering  to  be  resisted.  The  illusion  is 
kept  up  until  their  arrival.  From  Utah  the  Mormons 


94  THE    CHURCH    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

have  extended  into  New  Mexico,  Arizona,  Montana, 
Idaho,  and  Wyoming.  They  are  generally  good  farm- 
ers, and  have  developed  much  territory  which  they 
have  brought  to  great  fruitfulness.  The  alleged  Mor- 
mon population  is  138,000,  which  is  probably  far  be- 
neath the  actual  number. 

4.  The  Edmunds  Law,  prohibiting  polygamy  and  im- 
prisoning all  men  guilty  of  it,  has  been  the  first  suc- 
cessful step  to  establish  the  laws  of  the  United  States 
over  this  abnormal  community.     AVith  the  legal  pro- 
scription of  polygamy  it  is  likely  that  the  crime  will  be- 
come less  a  part  of  the  Mormon  system.     Probably  the 
Mormons  will  in  due  time  formally  throw  overboard  that 
one  cardinal  feature  and  retain  the  rest.     They  know 
how  to  adapt  themselves  to  circumstances.     The  Mor- 
mons prosper  chiefly  by  raising  the  cry  of  persecution. 

5.  The  Antidote  to  Mormonism  has   been  provided. 
Various  evangelical  bodies  have  sent  their  missiona- 
ries to  Utah,  who  labor  in  the  midst  of  that  Mormon 
stronghold.     The  first  missionary  to  Salt  Lake  was  a 
Congregationalist,  the  Rev.  Norman  McLeod,  in  1864. , 
The  Episcopalians,  the  Presbyterians,  and  the  Method- 
ists followed  in  rapid  succession.    The  method  of  work 
has  been  to  establish  services  and  found  schools.    There 
are  now  about  three  hundred  preachers  and  teachers 
engaged  in  the  gigantic  undertaking  of  uprooting  Mor- 
monism.    Their  work  is  difficult,  but  the  recent  ad- 
vance has  been  decided.    No  part  of  our  country  makes 
stronger  appeal  than  this  for  money  and  for  workers. 
No  one  who  goes  into  a  distant  land  to  combat  hea- 
thenism has  a  more  difficult  task  than  he  has  who  set- 
tles down  among  the  Mormons,  and  sets  up  the  banner 
of  the  cross  with  a  view  to  eradicate  the  most  glaring, 
disloyal,  and  corrupt  monstrosity  which  has  ever  in- 
flicted itself  upon  our  American  civilization. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

THE    ANTI-SLAVERY    REFORM. 

1.  American  Slavery  was  the  outgrowth  of  European 
cupidity.      In  1619  a  Dutch  frigate  stopped  at  James- 
town, Va.,  and  sold  fourteen  negroes  to  the  colonists. 
Others  were  brought  afterwards,  and  sold  at  various 
times  during  the  century.     By  the  year  1670  there 
were  two  thousand  slaves  in  Virginia.     But  this  col- 
ony did  not  stand  alone.      Slavery  existed  in  all  the 
colonies.     Newport,  R.  I.,  was  the  American  centre  of 
the  slave  trade  with  the  West  Indies  and  Africa.     It 
was  the  custom  to  make  slaves  of  the  Indians  capt- 
ured in  war. 

2.  The  Colonial  Protest  against  slavery  became  verr 
decided  as  the  number  of  slaves  increased  and  gave 
signs  of  becoming  a  permanent  institution.    No  strong 
voice  was  raised  in  justification  of  the  system.      It 
seems  to  have  been  always  regarded  as  an  evil — an  un- 
fortunate necessity  growing  out  of  the  colonial  need 
of  labor.     But  many  opposed  its  growth,  and  lifted 
their  voice  against  the  condition  of  the  slaves.     By  tho 
year  1700  there  was  a  strong  sentiment  throughout  New 
England  against  it.     John  Eliot,  the  apostle  to  the  In- 
dians, in  1675  presented  a  memorial  to  the  Governor 
and  Council  of  Massachusetts  against  selling  captured 
Indians  into  slavery,  and  against  the  wretched  condi- 
tion of  the  enslaved  Africans.     The  Quakers  of  Phila- 
delphia presented  to  their  Yearly  Meeting,  in  1688,  a 


96  THE    CHURCH    IN   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

strong  protest  against  "buying,  selling,  and  holding 
men  in  slavery."  All  Quakers  stood  boldly  against  the 
sin,  and  declared  that  it  ought  to  be  crushed.  William 
Penn's  "  concern  for  the  souls  of  the  blacks  "  pervaded 
the  entire  body  of  his  co-religionists.  John  Wesley, 
while  a  missionary  in  Georgia,  protested  against  slavery. 

3.  The  Opposition  to  Slavery  at  the  time  of  the  na- 
tional independence  was  universal.     It  was  considered, 
as  in   the   earlier  period,   a  great  misfortune,  which 
ought  to  be  removed  at  the  earliest  possible  moment. 
In  Virginia  its  abolition  was  publicly  advocated.     In 
Tennessee  and  Kentucky  the  public  press  waged  a  bit- 
ter warfare  for  its  extermination.     Pennsylvania  was 
the  centre  of  the  crusade.     The  Pennsylvania  Aboli- 
tion Society,  organized  before  the  Revolution,  was  re- 
established in  1784.      Franklin,  Benezet,  Rush,  Hop- 
kins, and  others  labored  earnestly  for  the  arrest  and 
extirpation  of  slavery.      All  the  great  Revolutionary 
leaders  —  Washington,    Adams,   Jefferson,   Hamilton, 
Jay,  and  the  rest — stood  as  a  unit  against  it.     In  ad- 
dition to  Pennsylvania,  other  states  had  their  aboli- 
tion societies — that  of  New  York  being  organized  in 
1785,  Rhode  Island  in  178.9,  Connecticut  in  1790,  and 
New  Jersey  in  J792. 

4.  All  the  Churches  took  the  same  view  of  the  sin 
of  slavery.     Elias  Neare,  of  New  York,  labored  from 
1704  to  1708  for  the  conversion  and  instruction  of  the 
negroes  in  that  city.     In  Virginia  it  was  considered 
proper  that   the   negroes   should   be    instructed,  and 
measures  were  adopted  for  that  end.      John  Wesley 
sent  over  to  the  Rev.  Mr.  Davis,  of  Virginia,  books 
for  the  benefit  of  the  colored  people  in  that  clergy- 
man's needy  parish.     An  important  literature  against 
slavery  sprang  up.     Anti-slavery  writings  of  the  Old 


THE    ANTI-SLAVERY    REFORM.  97 

World  found  a  ready  sale  in  the  New.  John  Wes- 
ley's "Thoughts  on  Slavery"  was  republishcd  here, 
and  found  many  readers  throughout  the  colonies. 
Slavery  had,  as  yet,  no  strong  apologist. 

5.  The  Quiescent  Period  extended  from  about  1800 
to  1830.  A  general  sentiment  of  indifference  pre- 
vailed. In  the  South  there  were  so  many  slaves,  and 
they  seemed  to  contribute  so  largely  to  the  mate- 
rial progress  of  that  section,  that  the  system  was  re- 
garded as  a  necessity.  In  the  North  the  agitation  was 
not  carried  on  with  the  former  activity.  No  plan  was 
proposed  which  assumed  the  shape  of  practical  possi- 
bility. The  most  feasible  plan  seemed  to  be  the  de- 
portation of  slaves  to  Africa.  The  American  Coloni- 
zation Society  organized  the  colony  of  Liberia,  on  the 
west  coast  of  Africa,  in  1817,  and  many  humane  men 
advocated  the  scheme.  But  the  chief  service  of  this 
worthy  institution  was  to  create  sympathy  with  the 
negroes.  As  to  making  Africa  a  home  for  the  Ameri- 
can negroes,  in  due  time  the  plan  was  proved  to  be  im- 
practicable. The  African  negro,  though  at  first  an  un- 
willing guest  in  America,  nevertheless  likes  his  home 
too  well  to  think  of  leaving  it,  except  to  aid  in  the 
evangelization  of  Africa.  The  war  with  Mexico,  in 
1847,  resulted  in  the  large  accession  of  Texas  as  slave 
territory.  Efforts  were  made  to  make  Kansas  a  slave 
state.  The  public  mind  became  aroused  to  great  ex- 
citement on  both  sides.  The  political  parties  took  up 
the  question  with  avidity.  The  firm  friends  of  the 
liberation  of  the  slave  triumphed  in  Kansas,  and  it  was 
admitted  as  a  free  state.  John  Brown,  who  had  led 
in  the  movement  in  Kansas,  began  a  liberating  move- 
ment in  Virginia,  where  he  was  arrested  and  hung  as 
a  fomenter  of  insurrection. 
7 


98  THE    CHURCH    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

6.  The  Emancipation  of  the  Slaves  during  the  Civil 
War,  by  the  act  of  President  Lincoln,  sustained  by  the 
Union  armies  and  the  general  sentiment  of  the  North- 
ern States,  put  an  end  to  the  long  struggle  in  behalf 
of  the  freedom  of  the   slave.     The  question  once  in 
politics,  it  remained  there  until  settled  by  the  sword. 
Boston  was  the  centre  of  the  agitation  in  the  North. 
Anti-slavery  movements  were  conducted  in  different 
sections  of  the  country.     Benjamin  Lundy  labored  in 
Western  Virginia,  from  1815  to  1830,  by  speech  and 
pen.     The  Rev.  J.  Dickey,  of  Kentucky,  about  1824, 
was  engaged  in  the  same  work.    William  Lloyd  Garri- 
son began  in  Vermont  the  publication  of  his  Journal 
of  the  Times,  in  1828.     Boston  became,  later,  his  great 
field  of  agitation.    Gerritt  Smith,  Joshua  Leavitt,  G.  B. 
Cheever,  Lyman  Beecher,  A.  A.  Phelps,  Oliver  John- 
son, Theodore   Parker,  H.  W.  Beecher,  and   Wendell 
Phillips  are  only  a  few  of  the  great  names  which  illu- 
minate the  pages  of  the  history  of  the  anti- slavery 
struggle  as  it  approached  its  culmination.     Whittier 
has  been  the  great  minstrel  to  reflect  in  verse  the  aspi- 
ration of  the  slave  for  freedom. 

7.  The  Present  Condition  of  the  liberated  slaves  and 
their  children  is  one  of  the  most  serious  questions  for 
the  American  Church  to  solve.     The  four  millions  of 
liberated  slaves  have  grown  into  seven  millions.     The 
churches  of  the  North  have  organized  important  meas- 
ures for  their  education,  which  are  constantly  increas- 
ing.    There  is  a  universal  acquiescence  in  the  extinc- 
tion of  slavery.    The  South  itself  regards  it  as  a  provi- 
dential deliverance.     Slavery  always  was  a  national 
expense. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

THE    TEMPERANCE    REFORM. 

1.  Intemperance  during  the  Colonial  Period  was  a  com- 
mon vice.     It  was  a  heritage  from  the  Old  World. 
Public  opinion,  even  in  the  clergy,  was  seriously  direct- 
ed towards  its  extirpation.     It  was  regarded  an  evil 
which  might  in  time  be  removed.    But  the  -day  seemed 
remote,  and  the  manner  of  the  solution  of  the  great 
question  was  a  problem  too  deep  to  engage  serious 
thought.     Moderate  drinking  was  common  to  all  class- 
es.   The  time  for  enriching  the  coffers  of  the  producer 
by  chemical  admixtures  to  alcohol  had  not  yet  come. 
The  colonial  tippler  was  at  least  safe  in  drinking  una- 
dulterated liquors.     But  no  man  who  lives  by  an  un- 
holy traffic  remains  satisfied  without  lessening  his  ex- 
pense in  producing  his  ware.    We  are  now  in  the  midst 
of  the  reign  of  poisonous  compounds.     That  the  evil 
of  intemperance  was  known  and  recognized  in  the  co- 
lonial times  may  be  seen  in  a  ^resolution  of  the  first 
Congress  (1774)  :  "Resolved,  that  it  be  recommended 
to  the  several  legislatures  immediately  to  pass  laws 
the  more  effectually  to  put  a  stop  to  the  pernicious 
practice  of  distilling,  from  which  the  most  extensive 
evils  are  likely  to  be  derived,  if  not  quickly  prevented." 
Tliis  was  bold  and  fearless  action.     No  Congress  since 
then  has  had  the  moral  courage  to  pass  a  like  motion. 

2.  Early  Leaders  in  the  Temperance  Reform  were  not 
wanting.     The  Quakers  were  a  unit  in  support  of  it. 


100  THE    CHURCH    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

The  Methodist  Episcopal  Confeixmce  of  1783  asked 
this  question :  "  Should  our  friends  be  permitted  to  make 
spirituous  liquors,  sell  and  drink  them  in  drams  ?"  To 
this  it  gave  answer  :  "  By  no  means:  we  think  it  wrong 
in  its  nature  and  consequences;  and  desire  all  our  preach- 
ers to  teach  the  people,  by  precept  and  example,  to 
put  away  this  evil."  The  Presbyterian  General  As- 
sembly of  1811  made  a  similarly  strong  declaration 
against  intemperance.  The  Congregationalists  took 
equally  strong  action  in  the  same  year.  Dr.  Rush's 
book,  "The  Effects  of  Ardent  Spirits  on  the  Human 
Mind  and  Body,"  published  in  Philadelphia  in  1785, 
was  one  of  the  first  American  works  to  prove  the  dele- 
terious physical  and  mental  effects  of  alcoholic  liquors. 
It  was  widely  circulated,  and  exerted  a  great  influence 
in  directing  public  attention  to  the  growth  of  intem- 
perance and  in  organizing  measures  for  its  suppression. 
Jeremy  Belknap,  of  New  Hampshire,  was  a  strenuous 
advocate  in  the  same  good  cause. 

3.  Organizations  for  the  eradication  of  intemperance 
began  to  be  formed  shortly  after  the  national  inde- 
pendence. The  first  temperance  organization  was 
formed  by  about  two  hundred  farmers  of  Connecticut 
in  the  year  1789.  In  1811  the  Massachusetts  Society 
for  the  Suppression  of  Intemperance  was  founded. 
This  society  had  the  support  of  the  strongest  men  of 
all  denominations  in  New  England.  Societies  model- 
led after  this  one  multiplied  in  various  parts  of  the 
country,  but  chiefly  in  New  England.  The  Washing- 
tonian  movement,  beginning  in  1840,  required  a  pledge 
of  total  abstinence.  Multitudes  gave  it  their  cordial 
support,  and  many  intemperate  people  were  reclaimed 
throughout  the  country.  But  the  interest  soon  de- 
clined. Other  associations  arose.  The  National  Tern- 


THE  TEMPERANCE  REFORM.  101 

perancc  Society  has  been  a  powerful  organization  for 
the  diffusion  of  temperance  literature  and  the  organi- 
zation of  temperance  movements  throughout  the  coun- 
try. The  Roman  Catholic  Total  Abstinence  Society, 
established  in  1870,  has  exerted  a  powerful  influence 
in  continuing  in  this  country  the  movement  begun  by 
Father  Matthew  in  Ireland.  The  most  aggressive  of  all 
the  associations  in  this  country  has  been  the  Woman's 
Christian  Temperance  Union,  which  began  with  the 
Woman's  Crusade  in  Ohio  in  1874.  The  president  of 
this  association  is  Miss  Frances  E.  Willard. 

4.  Constitutional  Prohibition  is  the  latest  and  most 
radical  method  of   suppressing   intemperance   in   the 
United  States.     Maine  was  the  first  state  to  prohibit 
the  manufacture  and  sale  of  all  intoxicants.     Kansas 
and  Iowa  followed  in  the  same  path.     Rhode  Island 
adopted  the  amendment,  but  there  was  never  any  dis- 
position on  the  part  of  the  officers  to  carry  it  out.     By 
shrewd  political  management  the  amendment  has  been 
reversed,  and  now,  in  the  state  made  immortal  by  the 
career  of  Roger  Williams,  the  saloon  has  full  liberty 
of   destruction.      Michigan,  Pennsylvania,  Kentucky, 
Texas,  and  several  other  states  have  i-ejected  the  amend- 
ment by  a  popular  vote.     The  manufacturers  of  intox- 
icating liquor  have  bent  their  energies  against  consti- 
tutional prohibition  in  every  state  where  the  question 
lias  been  submitted  to  the  popular  decision. 

5.  The  Friends  of  the  Saloon  have  spent  money  with 
a  lavish  hand,  have  subsidized  the  press,  have  employed 
voluble  speakers,  have  misrepresented  the  operation  of 
the  prohibitory  laws  in  states  where  the  constitutional 
amendment  prevails,  have  presented  the  bribe  of  politi- 
cal support  to  men  who  will  oppose  prohibition,  and  have 
offered  the  tempting  snare  of  supporting  high  license. 


102  THE    CHURCH    IX   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

Many  friends  of  temperance  look  upon  local  option  as 
the  best  remedy  for  intemperance.  In  the  Southern 
States  it  is  the  favorite  remedy.  But  this  is  merely 
temporary.  The  territory  where  liquors  are  prohibited 
can  easily  be  reached  by  the  stealthy  arm  of  the  ven- 
dor from  the  adjoining  territory  where  it  is  free.  Fre- 
quent elections  make  local  option  a  dream  rather  than 
a  permanent  possession.  Many  friends  of  temperance 
look  upon  high  license  as  the  best  method  of  restric- 
tion. This  delusion  may  prevail  for  a  time.  A  sin  is 
no  less  a  sin  because  the  doer  offers  a  large  price  for 
the  privilege  of  committing  it.  He  whose  itching 
palm  takes  the  price  is  no  less  a  sinner  even  though 
the  impersonal  offender  bears  the  great  name  of  the 
United  States. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

PHILANTHROPY    AND    CHRISTIAN    UNION. 

1.  The  Philanthropic  Spirit  is  one  of  the  most  nota- 
ble of  all  the  developments  of  the  American  Church. 
The  early  introduction  of  the  voluntary  principle  as 
the  basis  of  financial  support  has  become  a  prominent 
factor  in  the  growth  of  the  philanthropic  spirit.     The 
needs  of  the  Church  have  required  the  voluntary  gifts  of 
the  people.    The  United  States  have  really  done  but  lit- 
tle, compared  with  the  wealth  at  command,  for  the  larger 
humane  work  of  the  country.     The  vast  asylums  for 
all  the  helpless  classes  have,  for  the  most  part,  grown 
out  of  the  spirit  of  beneficence  in  the  individual  citi- 
zen.    The  first  gifts  of  the  colonists  were  for  educa- 
tion.    These  were  humble  and  small,  but  they  were 
the  foundation  of  that  immense  giving  for  educational 
purposes  which  has  placed  the  American  Church  far 
beyond  the  Church  in  other  countries. 

2.  The  Education  of  the  Freedmen  has  been  recognized 
as  one  of  the  most  urgent  benevolent  causes  of  the  last 
thirty  years.     All  the  larger  ecclesiastical  bodies  have 
poured  down  into  the  Southern  country  vast  sums  of 
money  for  the  education  of  both  the  white  and  colored 
people.    The  Peabody  Fund,  founded  by  the  late  George 
Peabody,  has  been  a  source  of  great  help.     The  Slater 
fund  is  every  year  extending  its  beneficent  work.    The 
general  government  took  the  freedmen  under  its  own 
care  at  first,  by  establishing  the  Freedmen's  Bureau. 


104  THE    CHUliCII    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

But  this  did  not  meet  the  want.  The  churches  came 
in  and  took  its  place,  and  have  carried  the  work  far 
beyond  the  limits  which  £he  government  had  designed. 
The  Fisk  University,  in  Nashville,  is  a  notable  typo 
of  an  institution  founded  by  Northern  beneficence  for 
the  education  of  the  colored  people  in  the  South.  The 
Vanderbilt  University,  founded  by  the  late  Cornelius 
Vanderbilt,  of  New  York,  is  a  type  of  the  beneficent 
spirit  of  the  North  operating  for  the  benefit  of  the 
whites  in  the  South.  These  are,  however,  only  portions 
of  the  immense  sums  and  the  large  educational  insti- 
tutions which  the  South  owes  to  the  benevolent  spirit 
of  Northern  citizens.  Beyond  all  calculation  is  the 
power  of  these  golden  threads  of  fraternal  love  to  heal 
the  divisions  engendered  by  the  War  for  the  Union. 

3.  The  Treatment  of  the  Indians  by  the  United  States 
is  one  of  the  darkest  chapters  in  our  national  history. 
The  military  spirit  has  predominated  in  the  national 
management  of  the  aborigines,  and  the  general  judgment 
has  been  "  the  only  good  Indian  is  the  dead  Indian." 
We  have  crowded  the  Indians  into  reservations,  and 
then  managed  to  deprive  them  again  of  these.  The  deal- 
ings with  the  Indians  have  been  managed  on  the  basis 
of  might  giving  right.  The  only  relief  to  the  dark 
picture  of  the  government's  management  of  the  Indian 
problem  has  been  the  humane  policy  of  the  churches. 
All  the  early  colonial  legislation  was  friendly.  The 
king's  instruction  to  the  first  colony — Virginia — was  : 
"To  provide  that  the  true  word  and  service  of  God  be 
preached,  planted,  and  used,  not  only  in  the  said  colony, 
but  also  as  much  as  might  be  among  the  savages  bor- 
dering upon  them,  according  to  the  rites  and  doc- 
trines of  the  Church  of  England."  Whether  by  the 
authority  of  the  original  charters,  or  the  voluntary 


PHILANTHROPY    AND    CHRISTIAN    UNION.  105 

legislation  of  the  colonial  governments,  the  Indian  was 
treated  well.  The  point  made  by  Roger  Williams, 
that  the  Indian  was  the  real  owner  of  the  soil,  thorough- 
ly pervaded  the  better  colonists  all  along  the  seaboard. 
But  our  later  treatment  has  been  in  antagonism  to  all 
our  colonial  antecedents.  The  seal  of  Massachusetts 
Colony  had  as  its  device  the  figure  of  an  Indian,  with 
the  Macedonian  cry,  "Come  over  and  help  us."  We 
have  "come  over,"  and  cheated  and  killed.  Our  wars 
with  the  Indians  have  arisen  from  Indian  depredations 
produced  by  the  Indian's  knowledge  that  he  had  been 
treated  unjustly.  The  wars  have  been  crimes,  as  fully 
so  as  the  partition  of  Poland  by  Prussia,  Austria,  and 
Russia. 

4.  Christian  Union  has  been  one  of  the  most  beauti- 
ful phases  of  our  American  ecclesiastical  life.  Until 
about  1860  the  controversial  spirit  asserted  itself.  The 
Unitarian  controversy  in  New  England,  and  the  long 
conflict  between  the  Calvinistic  and  Arminian  types 
of  theology,  pervaded  the  Northern  churches,  and 
reached  some  parts  of  the  South.  But  the  spirit  of 
ecclesiastical  fraternity  and  wise  co-operation  now  be- 
came prominent,  due  in  large  measure  to  the  great  re- 
vival of  1857-59.  There  had  already  been  beginnings. 
The  Evangelical  Alliance,  which  Avas  founded  in  1846, 
has  been  a  powerful  agency  in  bringing  the  evangeli- 
cal churches  of  the  United  States  into  close  relation- 
ship. The  Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  found- 
ed in  1851  after  the  model  of  the  London  Society  for 
Improving  the  Spiritual  Condition  of  Young  Men  en- 
gaged in  the  Drapery  and  other  Trades,  in  1844,  has 
brought  together  a  great  number  of  active  men  for 
earnest  work  in  caring  for  young  men  in  every  part  of 
the  United  States.  There  arc  now  about  three  thou- 


106  THE    CHURCH    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

sand  branches  of  this  association  throughout  the  world. 
The  Sanitary  Commission,  a  voluntary  association  for 
the  care  of  the  wounded  and  suffering  during  the 
Civil  War,  was  purely  secular,  but  comprised  voluntary 
workers  from  many  communions.  The  Christian  Com- 
mission, also  voluntary,  consisted  of  persons  who  com- 
bined Christian  sympathy  with  physical  care  of  the 
suffering  during  the  war.  About  twelve  million  dol- 
lars were  contributed  voluntarily  by  the  people  of  the 
North  for  the  carrying  on  of  the  work  of  these  two 
branches  of  united  Christian  work. 

5.  Christian  Co-operation  is  constantly  advancing.  In 
city  missionary  work,  in  societies  of  young  people  for 
Scriptural  instruction,  in  the  larger  place  assigned  to 
the  laity  in  evangelistic  effort,  one  can  easily  see  how  rap- 
idly the  spirit  of  unity  in  work  is  increasing  in  every  part 
of  the  American  Church.  The  present  danger  is,  that 
many  will  forget  their  denominational  attachments, 
and  think  that  any  one  religious  body  which  furnishes 
the  first  field  of  work  is  as  good  as  any  other. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

MISSIONS. 

1.  The  Missionary  Spirit  of  the  American  Church  has 
been  prominent  ever  since  the  beginning  of  the  pres- 
ent century.      The  great  revival  at  that  time   began 
early  to  take  the  form  of  an  intense  activity  in  behalf 
of   the  unevangelized.      The  expansion  of  our  popu- 
lation in  the  West  revealed  such  widespread  wants  in 
great  regions  of  the  country  that  it  seemed  as  if  the 
demand  made  upon  the  Church  was  far  greater  than 
could  be  supplied.     But  the  heroism  displayed  by  indi- 
viduals, representing  the  leading  evangelical  churches, 
soon  put  at  rest  all  misgivings  as  to  the  power  of  the 
Christian  people  of  the  land  to  extend  the  blessings 
of  the  gospel  to  every  part  of  the  national  domain. 

2.  Missions  to  the  Indians  were  among  the  first  to  re- 
ceive attention.     In  1840  there  were  about  one  million 
eight  hundred  thousand  Indians  in  the  United  States 
and  Canada.     Seventy  thousand  of  these  were  half  civ- 
ilized, or  in  such  close  relation  to  our  white  population 
as  to  be  under  Christian  influence.     Among  some  of 
these  tribes  the  churches  sent  missionaries,  established 
schools,  and  published  books  in  the  Indian  languages. 
Occasionally  an  Indian  preacher  of  great  popular  abil- 
ity visited  the  churches  in  the  East,  addressed  popular 
audiences,  and  secured  a  greatly  increased  interest  in 
behalf  of  the  spiritual  condition  of  his  people.     There 
were  two  influences  at  work  in  relation  to  the  Indians — 


108  THE    CHURCH    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

the  hostile  attitude  of  the  general  government,  which 
regarded  the  Indians  as  an  expensive  incubus  on  the 
nation  ;  and  the  sympathy  of  the  churches,  which  re- 
garded the  Indians  as  worthy  of  spiritual  care.  The 
process  of  decrease  of  the  Indians  went  steadily  on. 
Their  languages  became  fewer,  some  being  spoken  by 
such  decreasing  numbers  as  almost  to  disappear.  The 
American  Bible  Society  published  the  Scriptures  in  a 
number  of  the  Indian  languages,  while  some  of  the 
churches  published  catechisms,  hymns,  ^nd  other  prac- 
tical books.  The  churches  were  in  advance  of  the  Bible 
Society  as  to  time.  Some  of  the  parts  of  the  Scriptures, 
as  John's  gospel  in  Mohawk,  were  published  by  individ- 
ual churches. 

3.  Home  Missions.  —  The  foreign  populations  have 
presented  a  difficult  problem.  Thus  far  only  a  scanty 
provision  has  been  made  to  reach  their  wants.  The 
Germans,  French,  Scandinavians,  Poles,  and  other  im- 
migrants are  still  receiving  but  slight  attention  coin- 
pared  with  the  great  need.  The  first  Home  Missionary 
Society  was  organized  by  the  Congregationalists  in  Con- 
necticut in  1774.  The  Presbyterians  of  New  York  and 
New  Jersey  followed  in  1789  and  1796,  and  the  Con- 
gregationalists of  Massachusetts  organized  the  Massa- 
chusetts Home  Missionary  Society  in  1799.  The  polity 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  requiring  an  itiner- 
ant ministry,  the  labors  of  many  of  its  preachers  were 
purely  missionary,  without  the  name.  The  Western 
field  was  one  great  territory  for  home  missionary  work. 
The  Methodist  Episcopal  Missionary  Society  was  or- 
ganized in  1819,  but  its  labors  for  the  first  thirteen 
years  were  confined  entirely  to  the  home  work.  All 
the  churches  exhibited  a  profound  interest  in  mission- 
ary work.  The  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  organ- 


MISSIONS.  109 

ized  its  Boai'd  of  Missions,  for  both  foreign  and  homo 
work,  in  1820  ;  the  Baptists  organized  their  Home 
Missionary  Society  in  1832.  Some  of  the  churches 
have  Women's  Home  Missionary  Societies  which  sup- 
plement, in  a  wise  and  successful  way,  the  regular 
work  of  the  churches  with  which  they  are  connected. 
The  field  which  these  latter  societies  have  chosen  has 
been  chiefly  in  the  South,  on  the  frontier,  and  especial- 
ly in  Utah. 

4.  The  Foreign  Field  for  American  Missions  is  very 
broad.     From  the  time  when  the  American  Board  of 
Commissioners  of  Foreign  Missions  sent  out  their  first 
group    of    missionaries  —  Judson,   Newell,    and   their 
wives — to  India,  in   1812,  there  has  been  a   constant 
advance  in  missionary  interest  in  all  the  churches.     The 
field  is  now  very  broad.     There  are  five  separate  parts  : 
the  Protestant   countries   of   the  Continent,  the  Ro- 
man Catholic  countries,  the  Greek  Catholic  countries, 
the  Mohammedan   countries,  and  the  Heathen  coun- 
tries.     Scandinavia,  German}7,  Switzerland,  and  Italy 
have  become  special  fields.     Bulgaria  and  Turkey,  with 
Constantinople  as  the  centre,  have  received  great  at- 
tention. 

5.  Robert  College,  founded  on  the  bank  of  the  Bos- 
phorus  by  the   late   Christopher  Robert,  has  been  a 
powerful  agent  in  Christian  education  for  the  polyglot 
population  of  Turkey.     Greece,  Syria,  Egypt,  and  the 
coast  of  Asia  Minor  have  shared  in  the  beneficent  la- 
bors of  American  missions.      Missionaries  have  gone 
eastward  from  Turkey  as  far  as  the  valley  of  the  Tigris 
and  Euphrates,  and  have  almost  touched   the   great 
band  of  workers  in  India.     India  is  one  great  network 
of  Christian  missions,  many  being  organized  and  sup- 
ported by  the  churches  of  the  United  States.    Already 


110  THE    CHUBCII    IN   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

a  vast  native  Christian  population  has  been  developed, 
with  native  preachers,  teachers,  and  medical  helpers. 
Burma,  with  Judson  as  the  great  apostle,  has  become 
a  prosperous  field.  In  Singapore  there  are  American 
missions  and  schools.  Up  the  China  coast  there  arc 
others,  while  all  over  the  eastern  part  of  China,  and 
now  in  Japan  and  Korea,  men  and  women  from 
America  are  preaching,  teaching,  gathering  in  or- 
phans, and  founding  schools.  The  gospel  in  the 
Sandwich  Islands  is  a  special  triumph  of  American 
Christianity.  Alaska,  our  latest  northwestern  posses- 
sion, is  now  becoming  a  prosperous  missionary  field. 
The  honor  of  seeing  its  importance,  and  being  the 
first  to  cultivate  this  field,  belongs  to  the  Presbyterian 
Church  of  the  United  States. 

6.  The  New  Africa. — The  latest  phase  in  African 
evangelization  is  to  be  found  in  the  opening  for  the 
gospel  in  the  regions  explored  by  the  immortal  David 
Livingstone.  Stanley,  with  the  view  of  aiding  the 
project  of  the  king  of  Belgium  in  founding  the  Congo 
Free  State,  by  his  travels  and  the  interest  awakened 
by  his  books  describing  them,  has  contributed  greatly 
to  the  interest  in  the  New  Africa  on  the  part  of  the 
whole  Christian  world.  Many  of  the  leading  churches 
have  already  established  missions  along  the  Congo. 
Bishop  William  Taylor,  though  now  advanced  in  years, 
is  at  work  in  that  newly  opened  region  with  all  the 
enthusiasm  which  marked  his  earlier  labors  in  Califor- 
nia, Australia,  South  Africa,  South  America,  and  India. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

CHRISTIAN   LITERATURE. 

1.  The  First  Publications  of  the  Colonial  Writers  were 
largely  religious.     Even  such  works  as  Morton's  "  Me- 
morial," which  was  designed  to  describe  the  early  his- 
tory of  the  Plymouth  Colony,  dealt  much  in  religious 
matter.     Such  accounts  as  were  sent  back  to  England, 
describing  the  colonial  history,  gave  so  much  prominence 
to  ecclesiastical  and  religious  matters  that  one  would 
suppose  the  writers  were  dealing  with  the  annals  of  a 
church  rather  than  of  a  colony.    The  writers,  however, 
were  for  the  most  part  preachers,  and  often  learned 
theologians,  and  the  matter  which  they  furnished  was 
welcome  to  the  whole  Protestant  world  of  Europe. 
Eliot's  Indian  Bible,  while  it  could  not  be  read  by  an 
individual  in  Europe,  and  by  very  few  in  the  colonies, 
aroused  a  profound  foreign  interest  in  American  eccle- 
siastical life.     The  colleges  of  Harvard  and  Yale  were 
centres  of  a  Christian  literature.     The  professors  were 
mostly  preachers,  and  many  of  the  young  men  who 
studied    under   them    went    into    the   New    England 
pulpits,  and  themselves  became  valuable  contributors 
to  the  new  religious  literature  of  the  colonies. 

2.  Elementary  Religious  Works  were  produced  at  an 
early  period.     The  "New  England   Primer,"  during 
the  eighteenth  century,  was  the  little  manual  which 
was  regarded  in  New  England  as  necessary  for  every 
child's  instruction.     The  catechism  prepared  by  Rich- 


112  THE    CIIURCII    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

ard  Mather  and  John  Cotton,  entitled  "Spiritual  Milk 
for  Babes,"  appeared  in  many  forms  and  for  many 
years,  and  was  incorporated  in  the  "New  England 
Primer  "  of  later  date.  It  was  made  a  part  of  a  primer 
for  the  colony  of  Connecticut,  and  published  about 
1715.  The  "New  England  Primer"  absorbed  the 
necessary  parts  of  other  elementary  works,  and  was 
published  in  the  various  colonies.  It  was  edited  by 
many  competent  hands,  and  adapted  itself  to  the  po- 
litical changes  of  the  colonies.  At  one  time  it  was 
strongly  anti- Catholic.  It  was  loyal  to  the  British 
king,  when  it  was  necessary  so  to  be.  But  in  due  time 
it  produced  Washington's  portrait  as  its  frontispiece. 
The  "  New  England  Primer  Improved  "  was  the  later 
and  final  form.  It  contained  hymns  by  Watts,  easy 
spelling  and  reading  lessons,  prayers,  acrostics,  the 
Shorter  Catechism,  and  the  celebrated  "  Dialogue  be- 
tween Christ,  Youth,  and  the  Devil."  The  picture  of 
John  Rogers  at  the  stake,  surrounded  by  his  wife  and 
children,  was  always  a  necessary  illustration.  The 
couplets,  beginning  with 

"In  Adam's  fall 
We  sinned  all," 

and  closing  with 

"  Zacclicus  he 
Did  climb  the  tree 
His  Lord  to  see," 

were  never  omitted,  as  needful  exposition  of  the  truth 
to  accompany  the  quaint  illustrations.  The  "Psal- 
terium  Americanum,"  edited  by  Cotton  Mather,  was 
used  for  worship  extensively.  The  "Whole  Book  of 
Psalms,"  published  in  1G40,  a  literal  reprint  of  the  re- 
ceived version,  was  as  near  an  approach  to  the  P,salter 


CHRISTIAN    LITEKATUHE.  113 

of  the  Established  Church  as  the  prejudices  of  the 
Puritan  fathers  would  allow.  The  great  basis  of  the 
New  England  faith  was  the  Westminster  Catechism. 
It  was  the  universal  guide.  Every  pastor  went  ac- 
cording to  it  in  the  colonial  period.  It  was  regarded 
as  the  great  modern  triumph  of  Christianity  in  Europe. 
Sermons  were  preached  upon  it,  and  books  were  pub- 
lished in  exposition  of  it.  Samuel  Willard,  for  exam- 
ple, covered  a  space  of  nineteen  years,  by  delivering 
two  hundred  and  fifty  lectures  on  the  Shorter  Cate- 
chism. His  works  were  published  after  his  death  in 
a  ponderous  volume — the  first  folio  produced  by  the 
American  press.  Sermons  were  a  favorite  form  of  re- 
ligious literature.  Watts's  "  Psalms  and  Hymns " 
went  through  numerous  editions.  Religious  biography, 
such  as  the  "Journal  of  Whitefield,"  and  others,  was 
in  general  demand.  Reprints  of  Baxter's  practical 
works  were  common.  Only  a  short  time  elapsed  be- 
fore a  good  practical  work  in  England  found  its  way 
to  Boston,  and  came  out  from  the  press  of  Kneeland, 
Bumstead,  or  some  other  printer  of  that  place.  The 
fruits  of  the  colonial  press  now  appear  exceedingly 
primitive,  but  they  formed  an  essential  part  of  the  re- 
ligious foundation  of  the  country,  and  prove  to  us  the 
early  determination  of  the  colonists  to  develop  a  relig- 
ious literature  of  their  own. 

3.  The  Periodical  Religious  Press. — In  no  country  has 
the  religious  press  so  prominent  a  place  as  in  the  United 
States.  The  first  religious  periodical  was  Thomas 
Prince's  Christian  History,  published  in  Boston.  As 
with  all  other  departments  of  Christian  activity  at  the 
beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century,  so  to  the  publi- 
cation of  religious  periodicals  a  remarkable  impulse 
was  given.  The  Connecticut  Evangelical  Magazine 


114  THE    CHURCH   IN  THE    UNITED    STATES. 

began  in  1800,  the  Massachusetts  Missionary  Magazine 
in  1803,  and  the  Panoplist  (Boston)  in  1805.  Others 
followed  in  rapid  succession.  While  religious  month- 
lies were  the  first  which  came  into  use,  in  a  short  time 
there  were  religious  weeklies.  The  Boston  Recorder, 
established  by  the  Congregationalists  in  1816,  was  the 
first.  In  due  time  all  the  various  religious  bodies  had 
their  organs.  After  a  while  special  religious  interests 
were  represented  by  periodicals,  such  as  Tract  and  other 
societies.  Many  Sunday-school  publications  are  now 
of  periodical  character,  and  great  pains  are  taken  to 
present  in  them  the  very  latest  and  best  productions 
of  the  Christian  thought  of  both  Europe  and  America. 
Most  of  the  very  best  theology  we  have  now  appears 
in  the  religious  periodicals  of  the  United  States.  Re- 
searches in  Christian  archaeology  and  the  history  of  the 
Church  are  represented  by  special  periodicals. 

4.  Christian  Hymnology  has  been  cultivated  by  Amer- 
icans with  no  little  interest  and  success.  Even  in  the 
colonial  times  the  rigors  of  the  New  England  climate 
and  the  general  privations  which  the  new  settlers  had 
to  contend  with  did  not  prevent  the  production  of  de- 
votional hymns.  There  was  a  severity  in  the  theology 
which  has  not  been  reproduced  for  a  century  or  more, 
but  the  spirit  of  real  poesy  was  not  wanting.  Wig- 
glesworth's  "  Day  of  Doom  "  was  a  vigorous  statement 
of  Christian  doctrine  in  verse.  But  the  golden  age  of 
American  hymnology  has  been  since  the  beginning  of 
the  national  period.  Among  the  most  notable  hymns 
produced  in  this  country,  and  now  sung  by  Christian 
congregations  in  many  parts  of  the  world,  may  be 
mentioned  the  following: 

Timothy  Dwight: 

"I  love  thy  kingdom,  Lord;" 


CHRISTIAN   LITERATURE.  115 

W.  B.  Tappan: 

"There  is  an  hour  of  peaceful  rest;" 
and 

'"Tis  midnight;  and  on  Olive's  brow;" 

Bishop  A.  Cleveland  Coxe: 

"  O  where  are  kings  and  empires  now  ?" 
Thomas  Hastings: 

"How  tender  is  thy  hand;" 
John  Picrpont: 

"O  Thou  to  whom  in  ancient  times;" 
William  Hunter: 

*My  heavenly  home  is  bright  and  fair;" 

Henry  Ware,  Jr. : 

"Lift  your  glad  voices  in  triumph  on  high;" 

George.  P.  Morris: 

"Man  dieth  and  wastcth  away;" 

Nathaniel  P.  Willis: 

"The  perfect  world,  by  Adani  trod;" 
Mrs.  Lydia  II.  Sigourney: 

"Blest  Comforter  Divine;" 

Bishop  George  W.  Doane: 

"Softly  now  the  light  of  day;" 
George  W.  Bethunc: 

"When  time  seems  short  and  death  is  near;" 

William  A.  Muhlenbcrg: 

"I  would  not  live  alway;" 


110  THE    CHURCH    IN   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

Samuel  F.  Smith: 

"The  morning  light  is  breaking;" 
and 

"My  country,  'tis  of  thee;" 

William  C.Bryant: 

"When  the  blind  suppliant  in  the  way;" 
and 

"Deem  not  that  they  are  blest  alone;" 
and 

"O  Thou,  whose  own  vast  temple  stands;" 

Oliver  Wendell  Holmes: 

"Lord  of  all  being,  throned  afar;" 
and 

"O  Love  divine,  that  stooped  to  share;" 

John  G.  Whit  tier: 

"It  may  not  be  our  lot  to  wield;" 
and 

"We  may  not  climb  the  heavenly  steeps;" 

Mrs.  Elizabeth  P.  Prentiss: 

"More  love  to  thee,  O  Christ;" 

and  Ray  Palmer: 

"My  faith  looks  up  to  Thee." 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

THE     SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 

1.  The  Religious  Training  of  the  Young  in  the  colo- 
nial period  was  carefully  conducted.    The  secular  school 
gave  special  attention  to  the  reading  of  the  Scriptures 
and  religious  instruction.     More  attention  was  paid  in 
the  home  to  the  religious  education  of  the  young  than 
at  any  subsequent  time.     Schools  had  not  multiplied, 
and  the  New  England  colonists  were  very  jealous  of  a 
personal  supervision  of  the  early  religious  instruction 
of  their  children.      The  General  Court  of  Massachu- 
setts Colony,  in   1641,  made  legal  provision  for  the 
catechizing  of  the  children.     Scripture  selections  were 
committed  to  memory.     Then  there  was  an  intimate 
acquaintance  with  the  exact  language  of   the  Bible, 
which  has  probably  never  been  surpassed,  except  in 
Scotland. 

2.  The  First  Attempt  in  America  to  establish  the 
Sunday-school,  with   instruction   by  voluntary  teach- 
ers, was  made  by  the  Methodists  in  Virginia,  in  1784. 
This  was  temporary,  but  afterwards  revived  in  other 
parts  of  the  country.      A  Sunday-school  Society  was 
founded  in  Philadelphia,  in  1790,  with  Bishop  White, 
of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  at  the  head.     The 
special  object  was  the  instruction  of  the  poor,  but  it 
cannot  be  doubted  that  all  classes  soon  received  the 
benefit  of  the  movement.      In   1823  a  measure  was 
adopted  for  extending  the  Sunday-school  system   in 


118  THE    CHURCH    IN   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

many  parts  of  the  country.  Out  of  this  effort  the 
American  Sunday-school  Union  was  developed,  which 
still  exists,  and  which,  by  its  publications  and  evangel- 
istic force  on  the  frontier,  and  in  the  neglected  portions 
of  the  cities,  has  gathered  multitudes  of  children  within 
Sunday-schools. 

3.  All  the  Churches  saw  the  necessity  of  establish- 
ing the  Sunday-school  and  making  provision  for  its 
extension.     There  is  now  no  church  of  any  numerical 
strength  which  does  not  have  the  Sunday-school,  and 
does  not  regard  it  as  an  essential  part  of  its  system  of 
aggressive  work.     In  the  cities  and  the  sparsely  set- 
tled parts  of  the  country  alike,  the  method  has  been  to 
found  a  mission-school  in  a  neglected  region.     Out  of 
the  school  has  developed  the  church.    Many  of  the  large 
and  flourishing  churches  throughout  the  country  have 
grown  out  of  these  humble  beginnings,  and  are  now 
sufficiently  strong  to  organize  Sunday-schools  and  mis- 
sions themselves. 

4.  The  International  System  of  Sunday-school  Instruc- 
tion is  a  notable  advance  on  all  the  previous  methods 
of  Sunday-school  work.     As  earl}r  as  182C  the  Ameri- 
can Sunday-school  Union  recommended  a  uniform  sys- 
tem of  Sunday-school  instruction ;   but  this  failed  to 
receive  the  support  of  the  general  Christian  public,  and 
was  abandoned.    The  present  International  system  was 
adopted  in  1873.     The  lessons  are  arranged  by  a  com- 
mittee representing  the  various  religious  bodies  of  the 
United  States.     Not  only  is  the  instruction  thus  uni- 
form, but  many  of  the  better  methods  of  Sunday-school 
work  are  now  shared  alike  by  all  the  great  religious 
bodies.     The  adoption  of  the  "International  Series  of 
Sunday-school  Lessons"  has  been  one  of  the  strongest 
forces  for  bringing  into  closer  fellowship  all  the  great 


THE    SUNDAY-SCUOOL.  119 

ecclesiastical  bodies  of  the  United  States.  The  work- 
ing together  for  the  spiritual  building  up  of  the  young 
has  of  itself  a  subtle  power  to  make  men  forget  their 
points  of  doctrinal  divergence.  The  Chautauqua  As- 
sembly owes  its  origin  to  the  Rev.  John  H.  Vincent, 
now  Bishop  Vincent,  and  the  Hon.  Lewis  Miller.  It 
began  in  1874,  and  has  steadily  developed  since  then. 
It  has  its  branches  in  various  parts  of  the  United  States 
and  foreign  lands. 

5.  The  Sunday-school  Literature  has  grown  to  be  a 
large  and  important  department  of  our  general  relig- 
ious literature.  Its  great  development  has  been  within 
the  last  three  decades.  The  adoption  of  the  "  Interna- 
tional Lessons  "  has  contributed  to  the  increase  of  ex- 
pository books.  The  different  churches  have  published 
their  own  commentaries  on  the  lessons  ;  while  works 
on  collateral  topics,  such  as  sacred  geography,  history, 
and  archaeology,  have  multiplied  to  a  remarkable  de- 
gree. The  rich  literature  which  the  new  impulse  in 
Sunday-school  teaching  has  produced  is  one  of  the 
greatest  triumphs  of  the  Church  of  the  present  cent- 
ury. Many  of  the  denominational  publishing  houses 
have,  each,  a  large  Sunday-school  department.  Some  of 
the  best  religious  literature  of  the  American  Church 
has  appeared  under  the  name  of  Sunday-school  publi- 
cations. The  American  Sunday-school  Union  is  itself 
a  large  publishing  house,  and  has  contributed  to  our 
permanent  literature  many  of  its  very  best  works,  not 
only  by  the  republication  of  excellent  foreign  works, 
but  by  productions  of  our  native  authors. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

THE    AMERICAN   PULPIT. 

1.  The  Preachers  of  America  have  not  been  behind 
their  brethren  of  the  Old  World  in  any  of  the  great 
characteristics  which  distinguish  a  capable  and  success- 
ful ministry.  The  first  preachers  in  the  colonies  were 
men  of  remarkable  gifts.  Their  education  was  superior, 
and  they  thought  intensely.  They  were  the  real  found- 
ers of  the  New  England  commonwealths.  The  legisla- 
tion seems  to  have  been  largely  directed  by  them.  But 
for  the  inspiration  which  they  gave  to  the  cause  of  ed- 
ucation, the  great  institutions  of  learning  would  never 
have  come  into  existence  at  so  early  a  period.  Harvard 
College  was  the  direct  result  of  Shepard's  preaching. 
Yale,  Princeton,  Bowdoin,  and  Brown  are  monuments 
to  the  preachers'  power  to  establish  educational  advan- 
tages. Their  support  was  often  very  scanty — a  piece  of 
land  and  a  few  hundred  dollars.  Much  of  the  salary  was 
often  paid  in  produce.  It  was  a  time  of  "  high  study 
and  low  living."  The  young  ministry  in  the  colonial 
time  were  in  the  habit  of  getting  their  theological 
training  in  the  homes  of  older  pastors.  Before  Ando- 
ver  was  established,  it  was  quite  common  to  study 
with  the  experienced  pastor.  Bellamy,  Smalley,  Hart, 
West,  Emmons,  Somers,  Hooker,  Charles  Backus,  and 
President  Timothy  D wight  were  examples  of  the 
clergy  who  educated  young  men  for  the  ministry  in 
their  own  homes.  Tyler  educated  thirty  theological 


THE   AMERICAN    PULPIT.  121 

students    in    his    house    in   the    short    space   of    five 
years. 

2.  The  Leaders  of  Thought  and  Reform  in  all  our  crit- 
ical periods  have  included  preachers  in  their  num- 
ber. In  the  War  of  Independence  many  of  them  were 
among  the  most  powerful  advocates  of  separation 
from  the  mother  country.  They  aroused  the  people 
to  enthusiasm  amid  all  the  sanctities  of  the  Christian 
Church,  and  kept  the  people  under  the  spell  of  their 
influence  until  the  war  was  over.  Without  the  clergy 
at  that  time  the  independence  of  the  United  States 
could  not  have  been  achieved.  The  same  fact  ap- 
plies to  the  great  Civil  War  of  1801-65.  The 
churches  were  often  the  places  where  regiments  were 
convened  before  marching  southward,  and  where  the 
soldiers  listened  to  strong  appeals  from  the  pulpits  to  de- 
fend the  national  union.  No  army  has  ever  been  more 
fully  supplied  with  chaplains  than  the  Federal  army. 
They  shared  the  dangers  of  the  field  and  the  prison, 
and  in  some  cases  took  the  places  of  officers  on  the 
field  of  battle.  In  the  creation  of  the  strong  senti- 
ment for  the  abolition  of  slavery,  the  pulpit  had  its 
full  share  of  work.  Men  forgot  the  errant  theology  of 
Channing  and  Parker  and  others  in  the  might  of  their 
appeal  for  the  universal  brotherhood  of  man.  In  the 
promotion  of  revivals,  the  type  furnished  in  the  colonial 
times  by  Whitefield,  Frelinghuysen,  the  Tennents,  Ed- 
wards, and  others  have  been  perpetuated  ever  since. 
Nettleton,  Payson,  Finney,  Lord,  Lyman  Beecher,  and 
others  have  swayed  multitudes  by  the  power  of  their 
appeals  to  lead  a  Christian  life,  and  whole  churches  and 
great  organized  movements  have  grown  out  of  them. 
Moody,  without  the  formality  of  clerical  orders, has  been 
a  mighty  preacher  of  the  Word  for  twenty  years.  liar- 


122  THE    CHURCH   IN   THE   UNITED    STATES. 

rison,  Small,  and  others  have  done  great  service  in  gath- 
ering in  the  multitudes.  Cable,  the  litterateur,  is  teach- 
ing thousands  the  way  of  life  by  his  Bible  instruction. 
3.  Homiletical  Literature. — Among  the  most  numer- 
ous publications  of  the  early  American  press  were  ser- 
mons. A  great  many  of  Cotton  Mather's  three  hun- 
dred and  eighty-eight  publications  were  single  sermons, 
and  the  same  holds  true  of  many  of  his  contempo- 
raries and  successors.  The  sermon,  often  as  elaborate 
as  though  written  by  the  logical  Barrows,  might  fitly  be 
called  a  theological  treatise.  It  soon  found  its  way  into 
print.  The  clerical  wisdom  of  first  producing  in  the 
pulpit,  and  then  giving  the  sermon  to  the  larger  public, 
was  an  early  gift  of  the  Puritan  settlers.  As  the  press 
had  much  to  do  with  the  birth  of  Puritanism,  so  it 
was  liberally  used  to  sustain  and  propagate  it.  The 
sermon  in  print  was  highly  appreciated  in  all  the  great 
crises  of  the  earlier  American  history.  Franklin  re- 
garded it  as  a  good  investment  to  print  the  sermons 
of  Whitefield,  William  Teunent,  and  others.  Pres* 
ident  D wight  published  his  theological  system  in 
the  form  of  sermons,  in  four  octavo  volumes.  The 
most  influential  of  all  printed  sermons  in  America  have 
not  been  produced  here,  but  are  the  work  of  Fred- 
erick W.  Robertson,  of  Brighton,  England.  Among 
the  most  notable  of  American  preachers  who  have  re- 
cently passed  away  are  Bushnell,  Simpson,  William 
Adams,  and  Henry  Ward  Beecher.  Among  living 
preachers  may  be  mentioned  Richard  S.  Storrs,  Phil- 
lips Brooks,  Theodore  L.  Cuyler,  T.  DeWitt  Talmage, 
Parkhurst,  G.  Dana  Boardman,  Charles  F.  Deems,  J.  A. 
Broadus,  John  P.  Newman,  Charles  H.  Fowler,  and 
David  Swing. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

THEOLOGY    OF   THE   AMERICAN    CHURCH. 

1.  The  Early  American  Theology  was  serious  and  fun- 
damental.    The  doctrinal  differences  of  the  Old  World 
had  caused  the  Puritan  emigration.     The  thinking  re- 
volved about  the  foundations  of  Christianity.     Never 
was  so  much  theological  meditation,  fortified  by  ap- 
propriate Scripture  proofs,  produced  amid  such  hum- 
ble surroundings  as  in  our  early  New  England  colo- 
nies.     The   echoes  from   the  Westminster  Assembly 
were  heard  throughout  New  England,  and  produced 
their  effect  in  the  log-house  of  the  humblest  colony. 
Theological  terms  were  well  understood,  and  the  finer 
points  had  their  discriminating  judges  in  men  clad  in 
homespun. 

2.  The  Scriptural  Period  was  the  first  stage  in  our 
theology.     The  Bible  was  uppermost  in  every  mind. 
A  doctrinal  tenet  which  was  purely  speculative,  and 
had  no  direct  Scriptural  proof,  passed  as  of  little  value. 
The  Westminster   Catechism,  the   Savoy  Confession, 
and  the  Thirty-nine  Articles  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land were  the  universal  bases  of  belief.     These  were 
claimed  to  be  derived  directly  from  the  Bible,  and 
stood    next   to   it   in  the    love   of    the  people.      The 
Scriptures   were    read    daily   in    the  domestic   circle, 
and  often  the  head  of  the  family  used  the  original 
Hebrew  and  Greek.     Scriptural  themes  were  frequent 
in  academic  use.      Cotton  Mather's  address,  on  taking 

*  c^ 


124  THE    CHURCH    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

his  degree  as  Bachelor  of  Arts,  was  based  on  "The 
Divinity  of  the  Hebrew  Points."  "  We  record,"  says 
an  author,  "  at  our  country's  origin  a  favorable  im- 
pulse to  the  employment  of  our  native  good  sense 
in  theological  investigation  ;  for  our  fathers  made  an 
open  renunciation  of  all  prescriptive  systems,  and  took 
the  Bible  alone  for  their  text-book." 

3.  The  Liberalizing  Period  came  as  a  result  of  the 
introduction  of  the  Half-way  Covenant.      Many  per- 
sons coming  into  the  Church  without  profession  of  re- 
generation, a  large  amount  of  loose  theology  came  in 
with  them.     Less  attention  was  given  to  the  confes- 
sions.    The  Bible  was  regarded  as  of  less  importance 
than  in  the  earlier  time.    Many  people  looked  upon  the 
severer  thinking  of  their  fathers  as  good  enough  for 
the  beginning  of  colonial  life,  but  not  suited  to  the  more 
advanced  period.     The  reaction  against  the  Scriptural 
letter  opened  wide  the  door  for  a  too  liberal  theological 
tendency.     The  result  was  the  Unitarian  revolt. 

4.  The  Controversial  Period  was  the  next  stage  in  our 
theology.     While  the  great  revival  at  the  middle  of 
the  eighteenth  century  did  much  to  restore  the  old 
theological  firmness,  the  tendency  now  was  to  a  dis- 
cussion  of   great   Scriptural   themes.      Jonathan  Ed- 
wards, of  Northampton,  by  his  work  on  "  The  Free- 
dom of  the  Will,"  opened  the  door  to  a  line  of  contro- 
versy which  has  broken  out  afresh,  at  intervals,  ever 
since.     His  work  was  the  best  philosophical  structure 
ever  reared  on  the  Calvinistic  theology,  whether  in  the 
Old  World  or  the  New.     The  Congregationalists  were 
most  affected  by  this  controversy.     While  the  Presby- 
terians were  agitated  by  the  discussion,  they  were  never 
diverted  from  a  line  which  they  early  chose — the  liter- 
ary qualifications  of  their  ministry,  a  thorough  Chris- 


THEOLOGY    OF   THE    AMERICAN    CHUKCH.  125 

tian  experience,  and  a  zeal  in  occupying  new  territory. 
The  favorite  theological  text-books  of  the  pre-revolu- 
tionary  period  had  been  Ames's  "  Medulla,"  "Wolleb's 
"  Compendium,"  and  Willard's  "  Body  of  Divinity." 
But  some  other  works  came  in  to  take  their  place. 
The  writings  of  Edwards,  who  is  the  real  founder  of 
"New  England  Theology,"  took  the  place  of  these 
primitive  works.  The  three  authors  who  built  on  the 
Edwardcan  foundation  were  Bellamy,  in  his  "  True 
Religion  ;"  Srnallcy,  in  his  "  Distinction  between  Nat- 
ural and  Moral  Inability  ;"  and  Hopkins,  in  his  "  Re- 
duction of  Disinterested  Love  to  a  System  of  Theol- 
ogy." 

5.  The  Unitarian  Period  was  the  next  in  order  of  time. 
The  opponents  of  the  Trinity  took  their  theology  from 
the  unevangelical  writers  of  the  Old  World.    One  of  the 
most  powerful  men  in  bringing  on  the  Unitarian  re- 
volt was  Chauncey,  of  Boston,  who,  in  his  "Season- 
able Thoughts  on  the  State  of  Religion  in  New  Eng- 
land," published  in  1743,  took  ground  against  the  great 
revival.     His  long  pastorate  of  sixty  years  was  of  dis- 
integrating force,  and  he  died  an  Arian.      Mayhew, 
of  the  West  Church,  Boston,  exerted  a  similarly  evil 
influence  in  leading  off   many  towards  the  Unitarian 
fold.      The  "Monthly  Anthology,"  which  was   com- 
menced  in   Boston   in    1803,   was   the   organ    of   the 
Unitarian  philosophers.      Moses  Stuart  and  Leonard 
Woods  were  among  the  leaders  of  the  evangelical  op- 
position to  the  rising  Unitarianism. 

6.  The  Hopkinsian  Theology  was  a  toning  down  of 
the  strict  Calvinism  of  Edwards  and  his  school.     The 
leaders  were  Hopkins,  Bellamy,  the  younger  Edwards, 
West,  Spring,  and  Emmons.     They  differed  from  the 
elder  Calvinism  as  to  the  nature  of  human  depravity, 


126  THE    CHURCII    IN   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

the  imputation  of  Adam's  sin,  the  nature  and  extent 
of  the  atonement,  and  the  natural  inability  of  the  un- 
regenerate  to  become  Christians.  They  were  warm 
advocates  of  revivals,  benevolent  institutions,  and  mis- 
sionary movements  ;  and  they  founded  the  Theologi- 
cal Magazine  (New  York),  the  Evangelical  Mag- 
azine (Connecticut),  and  the  Missionary  Magazine 
(Massachusetts).  The  strict  Edvvardean  Calvinists  and 
the  Hopkinsians  were  two  distinct  classes  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  present  century.  Each  operated  on  the 
other  favorably.  In  due  time  they  approached  and 
amalgamated,  though  without  any  formal  action.  The 
union  of  the  Calvinistic  Panoplist  with  the  Hopkinsian 
Missionary  Magazine,  in  1808,  was  one  of  the  public 
evidences  of  the  union. 

7.  The  Irenical  Period  is  the  latest  stage  in  American 
theology.  While  each  of  the  great  religious  denom- 
inations has  its  theological  system,  and  has  developed 
its  systematic  theology  from  the  basis  of  its  Confession, 
there  has  been  a  notable  absence  of  the  polemic  spirit. 
The  Edwardean  theory  of  the  Will  lias  been  ably  an- 
swered by  Whedon,  from  an  Arminian  point  of  view, 
but  without  acrimony.  The  universal  tendency  now  is, 
in  treating  doctrinal  theology,  not  to  pull  down  an- 
other, but  to  build  up  one's  own  system.  Everywhere 
the  spirit  is  constructive.  Many  of  our  younger  theo- 
logical writers  have  studied  in  German  universities, 

O  9 

and  in  some  instances  have  brought  over  with  them 
some  views  which  would  have  been  in  better  place 
if  left  in  the  Fatherland.  As  they  advance,  however, 
they  indicate  a  disposition  to  lay  aside  some  of  the 
superfluities  called  "  Higher  Criticism,"  and  to  adapt 
themselves  to  the  sphere  of  ascertained  Scriptural  truth. 


INDEX. 


Africa,  the  New,  110. 

Alliance,  the  Evangelical,  105. 

American  Church,  the  missionary  spirit  of  the,  107. 

American  Sunday-School  Union,  the;  its  origin  and  its  publications,  118, 

119. 

Anti-Slavery  Reform,  the,  95-98 ;  its  advocates,  96-98. 
Awakening,  the  great,  in  the  Northern  colonies,  not  felt  so  much  in  the 

Southern  colonies,  47, 48. 

Baltimore,  Lord,  first  and  second,  17. 

Baptists,  the  :  lead  in  inaugurating  voluntary  church  support,  G5,  66 ;  their 

work  of  evangelization,  70;  their  founding,  spread,  zeal,  and  culture, 

and  their  smaller  sects,  74, 79 :  the  Free  (Will),  79. 
"  Bay  Psalm  Book,"  the,  50. 

Berkeley's,  Sir  William,  opposition  to  schools  in  the  colonies,  36,  37. 
Bible  Society,  the  American,  founding  of,  68. 
Book  of  Mormon,  origin  of,  92,  93. 
Brainerd's,  David,  work  among  the  Indians,  56. 

Cambridge  Platform,  the,  32. 

Carolina*,  the,  a  refuge,  3;  colonized  from  Virginia,  18. 
Carroll,  John,  83. 
Cavaliers,  the,  2,  3, 13. 
Channing,  William  Ellery,  87. 
Chautauqua  Assembly,  the,  119. 
Christendom,  the  New,  1-3. 
Christians,  the,  threefold  origin  of,  90,  91. 

Church,  the,  at  the  founding  of  the  Republic,  62-64  ;  numerical  strength 
of,  at  the  beginning  of  the  National  Period,  64 ;  a  part  of  the  colonial 
system,  Go. 

— -  government  in  the  colonies,  31-34. 

—  of  England,  the,  29, 31,  72. 

the  German  Reformed :  its  origin,  members,  territory,  and  clergy,  75. 

—  the  Lutheran :  its  origin,  leaders,  territory,  schools,  and  theology, 
75,  76. 

—  the  Methodist  Episcopal :  its  beginnings,  leader?,  first  Conference, 
division,  Centennial  and  CEcumenical  Council,  77 ;  its  smaller  bodies, 
79, 80 ;  favors  temperance,  100. 


128  INDEX. 

Church,  the  Moravian :  its  origin,  territory,  missionary  zeal,  and  schools, 
76,  77. 

the  Presbyterian:  its  origin,  first  General  Assembly,  division  into 

New  and  Old  School,  reunion,  culture,  zeal,  and  theology,  76 ;  its  sub- 
divisions, 78  ;  Reformed,  78;  Cumberland,  79 ;  favors  temperance,  100. 

the  Protestant  Episcopal :  work  of,  for  the  Indians,  55,  56  ;  growth 

in  Southwest,  71 ;  its  founding,  growth,  and  characteristics,  72,  73; 
first  General  Convention  of,  72. 

the  Reformed,  30, 44 ;  effort  for  the  Indians,  55  ;  its  founding,  73 ; 

secession  from,  of  the  True  Reformed  Church,  74;  its  theology  and 
clergy,  74. 

the  Roman  Catholic,  82-84;  its  colonial  missions,  a  failure,  82;  its 

care  for  its  immigration,  a  success,  82,  83;  its  numbers — a  shrinkage, 
82, 83 ;  its  organization  and  educational  system,  83. 

and  State,  separation  of,  65,  66. 

the  Unitarian  :  its  origin,  leaders,  and  literary  spirit,  85, 86. 


Club,  the  Transcendental,  of  Boston,  87. 

Colleges,  affected  by  the  revival  of  1797,  67,  68;   a  result  of  preachers' 

labors,  120. 

Colonization  Society,  the  American,  97. 

Columbus :  his  religious  faith,  and  the  effect  of  his  discovery,  4. 
Commission,  the  Christian,  106;  the  Sanitary,  106. 
Congregationalists,  the :   the  descent,  clergy,  theology,  literary  fertility, 

and  educational  enterprise,  73  ;  Unitarians  sprung  from,  85. 
Congress,  the  First,  resolution  of,  against  distilling  liquors,  99. 
Continental  Colonies,  the,  21-24. 
Controversial  period,  the,  of  American  theology,  124. 
Controversies  in  Old  and  New  World  contrasted,  62,  63. 
Cooperation,  Christian,  106. 
Cortes  conquers  Mexico,  4,  5. 
Cotton,  John,  55,  58,  59,  73;  Catechism  of  Richard  Mather  and,  111,  112. 

Dartmouth  College,  grows  out  of  an  Indian  school,  53. 

Decline,  the  spiritual,  at  Revolutionary  period,  63. 

Denominations,  the  leading  evangelistic,  70  ;  the  larger  and  earlier,  72-77  ; 

the  smaller,  78-80;  the  multiplication  of,  78. 
Disciples  of  Christ,  the,  79. 
Dunster,  Henry,  37. 
Dutch,  the,  21,  22. 

Edmunds  Law,  the,  94. 

Education,  35-39;  the  educational  spirit  of  the  first  colonists,  35;  elemen- 
tary, 35.  3G;  colleges  founded,  37,  38 ;  prominent  in  New  England 
and  Virginia,  36-38;  in  Southern  colonies  largely  private,  38,  39; 
gifts  for,  103  ;  of  the  Freedmen,  103. 

Edwards's,  Jonathan,  "  The  Freedom  of  the  Will,"  124. 

Eliot,  John:  his  studies,  labors,  and  literary  work,  53-55;  memorial 
against  slavery,  95. 


INDEX.  129 

Emancipation,  Act  of,  98. 

Emerson,  Ralph  Waldo,  his  position,  descent,  and  spirit,  88. 
English,  the :  their  colonization,  12-20 ;  their  discoverers,  12. 
Europe,  religious  and  political  convulsions  of,  during  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, 1,  2. 

Evangelical  Association,  the,  80. 

Evangelical  Magazine,  the  Connecticut,  113,  114,  126. 
Evangelization  stimulated  by  the  revival  of  1797-1803,  68. 
Expansion  in  the  South  and  West,  69-71. 

Florida,  conquest  of,  5. 

France  looking  westward,  8. 

Freedmen,  the  present  condition  of  the,  and  their  children,  98;  education 

of,  103, 104. 
French,  the:  their  colonization,  8-11 ;  the  outcome,  11;  their  navigators, 

8,  9;  along  the  Great  Lakes,  9;  collision  with,  and  conquest  by,  the 

English  in  Canada,  11,  26,  27. 

Georgia,  an  asylum,  3, 18. 

Germans,  the:  in  Pennsylvania,  23,  24;  driven  from  the  Palatinate, 23. 

Grotius's  "The  Truth  of  the  Christian  Religion," 21. 

Half-way  Covenant,  the,  59,  60 ;  its  effect,  60, 124. 

Hanover,  Presbytery  of,  remonstrance  of,  against  a  general  assessment,  66. 
Harvard  College,  37 ;  special  work  at,  for  Indians,  52 ;  comes  under  con- 
trol of  the  Unitarians,  87. 

Henrico,  University  of,  first  important  school  in  Virginia,  36. 
Hopkinsianism,  its  leaders,  doctrines,  organs,  and  influence,  125, 126 
Huguenots,  the,  3,  5,  22,  23. 

Hutchinson,  Ann,  her  views,  their  rapid  spread  and  decline,  58,  69 
Hutchinsonian  Controversy,  the,  57,  58. 
Hymnology,  Christian,  114-1 1C. 
Hymns,  twenty-five  notable,  by  nineteen  authors,  114-116. 

Independence,  the  spirit  of,  invades  the  churches,  64. 

Indians,  the:  visited  and  converted  by  the  Jesuits,  10;  their  relations 
with  William  Penn,  18,  19;  with  the  Dutch,  21;  missions  to,  52-56, 
68,  76, 107, 108;  Eliot's  Bible  for,  54,  111 ;  treatment  of,  by  the  United 
States,  104  ;  books  for,  108. 

Intemperance  during  the  Colonial  Period,  99. 

International  Series  of  Sunday-School  Lessons,  118, 119. 

Intolerance  in  the  colonies,  40-45. 

Ironical  period,  the,  of  American  theology,  126. 

James  I.  drives  out  the  Pilgrims,  2. 
James  River  Colon)',  the,  13. 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  introduces  an  act "  for  establishing  religious  freedom,"  66. 
Jesuits,  the:  their  missionaries,  9, 10,  83 ;  their  " Relations,"  10 ;  influence 
over  the  Indians,  10. 
9 


130  INDEX. 

Lee,  Ann,  90. 

Liberalizing  period,  the,  of  American  theology,  124. 

License,  high,  a  delusion,  102. 

Literature,  Christian,  111-116 ;  of  the  Sunday-school,  119 ;  homiletical,  122. 

Livingston,  J.  H.,  74. 

Lord's  Supper,  the,  a  new  view  of,  60. 

Maryland,  the  colony  of,  17, 44. 
Massachusetts  Bay,  the  colony  of,  14, 15. 
Mather,  Cotton,  61,  73, 123, 124. 

Increase,  61,  73. 

Methodists,  the :  their  work  of  evangelization;  70, 71 5  first  Sundav-school, 

117. 

Mexico,  conquest  and  conversion  of,  4,  5. 
Millerite  movement,  the,  91. 

Missionary  Magazine,  the  Massachusetts,  114, 126. 
Missions,  107-110;  to  the  Mormons,  94;   Home,  108,  109;    Foreign,  five 

great  fields,  109 ;  organization  of  societies,  108, 109. 
Mississippi  Valley,  the,  9, 10,  26,  69. 
Molina's  Aztec  and  Spanish  Dictionary,  7. 
"  Monthly  Anthology,"  125. 
Moravians,  the,  19,  20. 
Mormon  abomination,  the,  its  antecedents,  book,  growth,  and   antidote, 

92-94. 

New  England,  church  laws  in,  31;  intolerance  in,  40-43;  preachers  of, 

able  political  guides,  46,  47;  "Primer,"  111,  112. 
New  Sweden,  colony  of,  22. 

Oglethorpe,  18,  20. 
Option,  local,  102. 

Panoplist,  the,  114,  126.  , 

Parker,  Theodore,  87,  88. 

Penn,  William,  18, 19,  81. 

Periodical  religious  press,  the,  113, 114. 

Philanthropy  and  Christian  Union,  103-106. 

Pilgrims,  the,  2,  14. 

Plymouth  Colony,  the,  13, 14 ;  amalgamation  of,  with  Massachusetts  Bay,  16. 

Political  framework  of  the  colonies,  28-30 ;  four  varieties  of  authority,  28, 29. 

Prayers,  long,  in  Puritan  service,  49,  50. 

Preachers,  the,  of  America,  120,  122. 

Presbyterians,  the,  in  Virginia,  44;  their  work  of  evangelization,  70. 

Prince's,  Thomas,  "Christian  History,"  113. 

Prohibition,  constitutional,  101. 

Protestantism :  how  affected  by  the  conquest  of  the  French  in  Canada,  11, 

26,  27 ;  rapid  growth  of,  in  Maryland,  17, 18 ;  vigor  of,  25,  26. 
Protestants,  the :  the  current  westward,  69, 70 ;  Poles  and  Italians,  20. 
Providential  planting,  the,  25-27. 


INDEX.  131 

"Psalterium  Americanum,"  the,  50,  112. 

Pulpit,  the  American,  120-122. 

Puritans,  the,  15, 1(5,  40;  writings  of,  48;  theologians,  57. 

Quakers,  the,  19;  persecution  of,  41;  co-operate  with  Presbyterians  for  re- 
ligious freedom,  66 ;  origin  and  leaders,  81 ;  Hicksite,  91 ;  protest 
against  slavery,  95,  96 ;  favor  temperance,  99. 

Recorder,  the  Boston,  the  first  religious  weekly,  114. 

Reform,  preachers  as  leaders  of  thought  and,  121. 

Reforming  Synod,  the,  32, 33. 

Religious  liberty,  diversity  of,  among  the  colonies,  30 ;  an  act  for  es- 
tablishing, in  Virginia,  66. 

Religious  life,  the,  of  the  colonies,  46-48. 

Religious  motive,  the,  supreme  with  colonists,  2,  3,  46. 

Revival,  the,  of  1797-1803,  67,  68  ;  advantages  of,  67,  68. 

Revolution,  the  close  of,  a  critical  time  for  the  Church,  63. 

Rhode  Island,  42,  74. 

Robert  College,  109. 

Robinson,  John,  14,  52. 

Roman  Catholics :  first  on  the  field,  4 ;  missionaries  in  Mexico,  5 ;  publi- 
cations of,  in  Spanish,  6,  7;  in  Maryland,  17,  44;  grounds  of  opposi- 
tion to,  44,  45;  in  the  West  and  South,  69;  and  the  public  schools, 
84;  their  parochial  schools,  84. 

Rush's,  Dr.,  "  The  Effects  of  Ardent  Spirits,"  etc.,  100. 

Saloon,  the  friends  of  the,  101, 102. 

Salzburgers,  the,  20. 

Saybrook  Platform,  the,  34. 

Sceptical  tendencies  from  France,  63. 

Scotch-Irish,  the,  19,  76;  driven  to  America,  19;  revival  among,  67. 

Scriptural  period,  the,  of  American  theology,  123. 

Sermon,  the,  the  chief  part  of  Puritan  service,  49;  the  printed,  as  a  form 

of  literature,  122. 
Shakers,  the,  90. 
Significance,  the.  moral,  of  the  Protestant  occupation  of  the  West  and 

South,  71. 
Slavery,  American,  the   outgrowth   of    European   cupidity,   95;    protest 

against,  from  colonies,  95,  96;  opposition  to,  at  Revolutionary  period, 

96 ;  the  quiescent  period,  97. 
Smith,  Joseph,  92. 
Spanish,  the :  their  colonization,  4-7  ;  their  greed  and  cruelty,  5,  6 ;  evils 

of,  in  Mexico  and  other  colonies,  5,  6. 
Sunday-school,  the,  117-119. 
Swedenborgians,  the,  their  organization,  General  Convention,  and  territory, 

89,  90. 

Swedes,  the,  22 ;  conflict  of,  with  the  Dutch,  22. 
Synods,  the,  of  New  England,  31,  32. 


132  INDEX. 

Temperance  Reform,  the,  in  first  Congress,  1774 ;  early  leaders  iu,  organ- 
izations, constitutional  prohibition,  99-102. 
Territorial  distribution  providential,  26,  27. 
Texas,  5,  27. 

Thanksgiving  and  fast-day  services,  50,  51. 
Theological  movements,  57-61. 
Theology  of  the  American  Church,  123-126. 
Transcendentalists,  the,  87,  88. 
Transferal  of  European  conflicts  to  America,  2. 

Union,  Christian,  105. 

Unitarian  period  of  American  theology,  125. 

Unitarians,  the:   their  origin,  61,  85;   philanthropy  and  culture,  87;   the 

effect  of  the  Half-way  Covenant,  124. 
United  Brethren  in  Christ,  the,  79. 
Universalists,  the,  and  other  smaller  bodies,  89-91. 

Virginia,  first  charter  of,  2,  3 ;  ecclesiastical  rival  of  Plymouth,  40 ;  intoler- 
ance in,  43,  44 ;  first  to  adopt  the  voluntary  principle,  65. 

Ware,  Dr.,  election  of,  to  professorship  in  Harvard,  85. 

Washingtonian  movement,  the,  100. 

West,  the,  the  churches  of,  their  wonderful  growth  and  vigor,  71. 

Western  Reserve,  the,  70. 

Whedon's  answer  to  Edwards  on  "  The  Freedom  of  the  Will,"  126. 

Wheelock's,  Eleazar,  school  for  the  Indians,  52,  53. 

Wheelwright's  connection  with  Hutchinsonianism,  57-59. 

Whitefield,  George,  47. 

"  Whole  Book  of  Psalms,"  the,  112, 113. 

Willard's,  Samuel,  lectures  on  the  Shorter  Catechism,  113 ;  his  "  Body  of 

Divinity,"  125. 

William  and"  Mary  College,  87,  38. 
Williams,  Roger,  30 ;  his  expulsion  from  Salem,  42, 43 ;  real  ground  of  his 

banishment,  43 ;  founder  of  Baptist  Church  in  America,  74. 
Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union,  101. 
Worship  and  usages,  in  the  colonies,  49-51. 

Young,  the  religious  training  of  the,  117. 

Young,  Brigham,  92. 

Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  105. 

Zinzendorf,  Count,  76. 


THE  END. 


